Herein, copper oxide/copper sulfide (CuO/Cu_xS) composites have been prepared by treating CuO with thiourea by an aqueous hydrothermal route and their thermoelectric properties are studied. The electrical conductivity is improved with the increase in thiourea content, as a result, thermoelectric power factor increased from 10^–4 to 10¹ µW m⁻¹ K⁻², and thermal conductivity of the CuO is also found to decrease with thiourea treatment. A detailed analysis indicated that these changes are due to the formation of copper sulfide (Cu_xS) in the CuO compound; a small fraction of electrically good conducting Cu_xS in the bulk CuO has produced composites with better electrical conductivity. These low-cost and non-toxic materials can be useful in thermoelectric energy conversion applications.

在此，通过水热法用硫脲处理CuO，制备了氧化铜/硫化铜（CuO / Cu _x S）复合材料，并对其热电性能进行了研究。随着硫脲含量的增加，电导率得到改善，结果，热电功率因数从10 ^–4增加到10 ¹  µW m ^-1  K ^-2，并且还发现CuO的热导率随硫脲处理而降低。详细分析表明，这些变化是由于在CuO化合物中形成了硫化铜（Cu _x S）所致。一小部分导电良好的Cu _x块状CuO中的S产生了具有更好电导率的复合材料。这些低成本且无毒的材料可用于热电能量转换应用。