Oxygen Vacancy Defect Engineering for Transverse Thermoelectric Enhancement: a Novel Extrinsic Pathway beyond Intrinsic Approaches (Adv. Sci. 27/2025)

Oxygen Vacancy Defect Engineering for Transverse Thermoelectric Enhancement The cover illustrates the significant enhancement of transverse thermoelectric power in cobaltate systems achieved through oxygen vacancy engineering, as reported by Hyungyu Jin and co-workers in article number 2502892. The induced oxygen non-stoichiometry enhances the variable-range hopping of charge carriers among cobalt sites, markedly boosting power generation in response to cross-plane heat flow. This approach provides a promising pathway toward efficient transverse thermoelectric conversion and its application in self-powered wearable electronics.