Thermoelectric properties of polycrystalline p-type ZrTe5 are reported in temperature (T) range 2 -340 K. Thermoelectric power (S) is positive and reaches up to 458 V/K at 340 K on increasing T. The value of Fermi energy 16 meV, suggests low carrier density of  9.5  10 18 cm -3 . A sharp anomaly in S data is observed at 38 K, which seems intrinsic to p-type ZrTe5. The thermal conductivity () value is low (2 W/m-K at T = 300 K) with major contribution from lattice part. Electrical resistivity data shows metal to semiconductor transition at T ~ 150 K and non-Arrhenius behavior in the semiconducting region. The figure of merit zT (0.026 at T = 300 K) is ~ 63% higher than HfTe5 (0.016), and better than the conventional SnTe, p-type PbTe and bipolar pristine ZrTe5 compounds.

We have investigated the electrical resistivity (1.8-480 K), Seebeck coefficient (2.5-300 K) and thermal conductivity (2.5-300 K) of PdTe2 and 4% Cu intercalated PdTe2 compounds. The electrical resistivity for the compounds shows a Bloch-Gruneisen-type linear temperature (T ) dependence for 100 K < T < 480 K, and Fermi liquid behavior (ρ(T ) ∝ T 2 ) for T < 50 K. Seebeck coefficient data exhibit a strong competition between Normal (N ) and Umklapp (U ) scattering processes at low T . The low-T , thermal conductivity (κ) of the compounds is strongly dominated by the electronic contribution, and exhibits a rare linear T -dependence below 10 K. However, high-T , κ(T ) shows the usual 1/T -dependence, dominated by the U -scattering process. The electron-phonon coupling parameters, estimated from the low-T , specific-heat data and first-principle electronic structure calculations suggest that PdTe2 and Cu0.04PdTe2 are intermediately coupled superconductors.

We report the electronic properties of the NdNiO3, prepared at the ambient oxygen pressure condition. The metal-insulator transition temperature is observed at 192 K, but the low temperature state is found to be less insulating compared to the NdNiO3 prepared at high oxygen pressure. The electric resistivity, Seebeck coefficient and thermal conductivity of the compound show large hysteresis below the metal-insulator transition. The large value of the effective mass (m* ~ 8me) in the metallic state indicate the narrow character of the 3d band. The electric conduction at low temperatures (T = 2 -20 K) is governed by the variable range hopping of the charge carriers.

The group 10 transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) (MX 2: M = Ni, Pd, Pt; X = S, Se, Te) have attracted much attention in the last few decades because of observation of exotic phases and phenomena such as superconductivity (SC), topological surface states (TSSs), type II Dirac fermions, helical spin texture, Rashba effect, 3D Dirac plasmons, metal–insulator transitions, charge density waves (CDW) etc. In this review, we cover the experimental and theoretical progress on the physical phenomena influenced by the strong electron–electron correlation of the group-10 TMDs from the past to the present. We have especially emphasized on the SC and topological phases in the bulk as well as in atomically thin materials.

We report electrical and thermal transport properties of polycrystalline ZrTe3. The polycrystalline sample shows semiconducting behavior in contrast to the established semi-metallic character of the compound. However the charge density wave (CDW) transition remains intact and its clear signatures are observed in thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient, in the wide temperature range 50 -100 K. The thermal conductivity points to additional scattering from the low frequency phonons (phonon softening) in the vicinity of CDW transition. The transport in the polycrystalline compounds is governed by smaller size polarons in the variable range hopping (VRH) region. However, the increasing disorder in polycrystalline compounds suppresses the CDW transition. The VRH behavior is also observed in the Seebeck coefficient data in the similar temperature range. The Seebeck coefficient suggests a competition between the charge carriers (electrons and hole).