The effect of carbon filler on the electrical resistance and the thermopower of copper oxide-based composites produced by ceramic technology by hot pressing has been studied. It is found that the dependences of the electrical resistivity on the filler concentration are characteristic by S-like curves that are typical of percolation systems; in this case, the resistivity decreases more substantially as the carbon content increases as compared to the decrease in thermopower value, which is accompanied by the existence of the maximum of the factor of thermoelectric power near the percolation threshold. The studies of the temperature dependences of the resistivity and the thermopower at low temperatures show that, in the range 240–300 K, the predominant mechanism of the electrotransfer of all the composites under study is the hopping mechanism. At temperatures lower than 240 K, the composites with a nanocrystalline CuO matrix have a hopping conductivity with a variable hopping distance over localized states of the matrix near the Fermi level, which is related to the conductivity over intergrain CuO boundaries. A schematic model of the band structure of nanocrystalline CuO with carbon filler is proposed on the base of the analysis of the found experimental regularities of the electrotransfer.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.