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Abstract

In the present study, we investigate the effect of the grain boundaries on both the electrical transport and the thermoelectric properties. For this purpose, the Seebeck coefficient and the electrical conductivity of a model material, such as nominally pure SrTiO3 (single crystal, microcrystalline, and nanocrystalline), is measured under oxidizing conditions. The impedance spectroscopy measurements reveal a strong change of the conduction properties of the nanocrystalline sample compared with the unperturbed bulk properties, namely a reduction of the p-type conductivity by two orders of magnitude at high oxygen partial pressure. Similarly, the Seebeck coefficient values of the nanocrystalline sample exhibit remarkable deviations from the single crystal ones: Under oxidizing conditions, values up to 2160 mu V K-1 (at 575 A degrees C) are detected. More importantly, in the nanocrystalline sample, the dependence of the Seebeck coefficient on the concentration of the charge carriers is found to be four times larger than in the single crystal.