High Power Density Electrochemical Thermocells for Inexpensively Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy

Long Zhang; Taewoo Kim; Na Li; Tae June Kang; Jun Chen; Jennifer M Pringle; Mei Zhang; Ali H Kazim; Shaoli Fang; Carter Haines; Danah Al-Masri; Baratunde A Cola; Joselito M Razal; Jiangtao Di; Stephen Beirne; Douglas R MacFarlane; Anuncia Gonzalez-Martin; Sibi Mathew; Yong Hyup Kim; Gordon Wallace; Ray H Baughman

doi:10.1002/adma.201605652

High Power Density Electrochemical Thermocells for Inexpensively Harvesting Low-Grade Thermal Energy

Adv Mater. 2017 Mar;29(12). doi: 10.1002/adma.201605652. Epub 2017 Jan 25.

Authors

Long Zhang^{1

2}, Taewoo Kim³, Na Li¹, Tae June Kang⁴, Jun Chen⁵, Jennifer M Pringle⁶, Mei Zhang⁷, Ali H Kazim⁸, Shaoli Fang¹, Carter Haines¹, Danah Al-Masri⁶, Baratunde A Cola⁸, Joselito M Razal⁹, Jiangtao Di¹, Stephen Beirne⁵, Douglas R MacFarlane¹⁰, Anuncia Gonzalez-Martin¹¹, Sibi Mathew¹¹, Yong Hyup Kim³, Gordon Wallace⁵, Ray H Baughman¹

Affiliations

¹ The Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, 75083, USA.
² Sichuan New Material Research Center, Mianyang, Sichuan, 621000, China.
³ School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, South Korea.
⁴ Department of Mechanical Engineering, INHA University, Incheon, 22212, South Korea.
⁵ ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, AIIM Facility, University of Wollongong, Innovation Campus, New South Wales, 2500, Australia.
⁶ ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, 3220, Australia.
⁷ FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32310, USA.
⁸ George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332, USA.
⁹ Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, 3220, Australia.
¹⁰ School of Chemistry and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, 3800, Australia.
¹¹ Lynntech, Inc, 2501 Earl Rudder Freeway South, College Station, TX, 77845, USA.

PMID: 28121372
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201605652

Abstract

Continuously operating thermo-electrochemical cells (thermocells) are of interest for harvesting low-grade waste thermal energy because of their potentially low cost compared with conventional thermoelectrics. Pt-free thermocells devised here provide an output power of 12 W m^-2 for an interelectrode temperature difference (ΔT) of 81 °C, which is sixfold higher power than previously reported for planar thermocells operating at ambient pressure.

Keywords: energy harvesting; thermo-electrochemical; thermocells; thermogalvanic.