doi:10.1016/j.actamat.2015.09.036engFlahaut, D.Allouche, J.Sotelo Mieg, Andrés EmilioRasekh, ShTorres Portero, Miguel ÁngelMadre Sediles, María Antonieta Eugenia De A.Díez Moñux, Juan CarlosRole of Ag in textured-annealed Bi2Ca2Co1.7Ox thermoelectric ceramicART-2016-92269Bi2Ca2Co1.7Ox thermoelectric ceramics with small Ag additions (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 wt.%) have been successfully grown from the melt, using the laser floating zone method and subsequently annealed at 800 °C for 24 h. The microstructure has shown a reduction of the amount of secondary phases for Ag contents up to 4 wt.%. This microstructural evolution leads to a decrease of the electrical resistivity values until an Ag content of 4 wt.%, whereas Seebeck coefficient has been maintained unchanged. This is in agreement with the presence of metallic Ag in all samples, confirmed not only by Energy Dispersive Spectrometry but also by X-ray photoelectron and Auger spectroscopy. These electrical properties lead to maximum power factor values of about 0.30 mW/K2.m at 650 °C for the 4 wt.% Ag containing samples, which is among the best results obtained for this type of materials.2016http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/5677810.1016/j.actamat.2015.09.036http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/56778oai:zaguan.unizar.es:56778info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO/MAT2013-46505-C3-1-RACTA MATERIALIA 102 (2016), 273-283by-nc-ndhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess