Publication Date:
2020-09-10
Description:
Low-grade heat (below 373 K) is abundant and ubiquitous, but mostly wasted due to the lack of cost-effective recovery technologies. The liquid-state thermocell (LTC), an inexpensive and scalable thermoelectric device, may be commercially viable for harvesting low-grade heat energy if its Carnot-relative efficiency (ηr) reaches ~5%, which is a challenging metric to achieve experimentally. We used a thermosensitive crystallization and dissolution process to induce persistent concentration gradient of redox ions, a highly enhanced Seebeck coefficient (~3.73 mV K–1), and suppressed thermal conductivity in LTCs. As a result, we achieved a high ηr of 11% for LTCs near room temperature, and a substantially decreased cost-performance of our LTC. Our device demonstration offers promise for cost-effective low-grade heat harvesting.
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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