title: Enhanced thermoelectric performance of CdO : Ag nanocomposites.
abstract: CdO : Ag nanocomposites with metallic Ag nanoparticles embedded in the polycrystalline CdO matrix were synthesized by the solid-state reaction method. The addition of Ag led to increased grain boundaries of CdO and created numerous CdO/Ag interfaces. By incorporating Ag into the CdO matrix, the power factor was increased which was probably due to the carrier energy filtering effect induced by the enhanced energy-dependent scattering of electrons. In addition, reduced thermal conductivity was also achieved by stronger phonon scattering from grain boundaries, CdO/Ag interfaces and Ag nanoparticles. These concomitant effects resulted in enhanced ZT values for all CdO : Ag nanocomposites, demonstrating that the strategy of introducing metallic Ag nanoparticles into the CdO host was very effective in optimizing the thermoelectric performance.
authors.affiliation: Hebei Key Lab of Optic-electronic Information and Materials, The College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China. sfwang@hbu.edu.cn fugs@hbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Linjie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Hebei Key Lab of Optic-electronic Information and Materials, The College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China. sfwang@hbu.edu.cn fugs@hbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Shufang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Hebei Key Lab of Optic-electronic Information and Materials, The College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China. sfwang@hbu.edu.cn fugs@hbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Hebei Key Lab of Optic-electronic Information and Materials, The College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China. sfwang@hbu.edu.cn fugs@hbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xinyu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zha
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of ASIC, Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute, Shijiazhuang, 050051, China.
authors.forename: Niefeng
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of ASIC, Hebei Semiconductor Research Institute, Shijiazhuang, 050051, China.
authors.forename: Shujie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Hebei Key Lab of Optic-electronic Information and Materials, The College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China. sfwang@hbu.edu.cn fugs@hbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jianglong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Hebei Key Lab of Optic-electronic Information and Materials, The College of Physics Science and Technology, Hebei University, Baoding, 071002, China. sfwang@hbu.edu.cn fugs@hbu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Guangsheng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fu