A thermoelectric pipe (TEP) is constructed by tubular graphite electrodes, Teflon material, and stainless-steel tube containing polymeric nanofluids as electrolytes in this study. Heat dissipation and power generation (generating capacity) are both fulfilled with temperature difference via the thermal-electrochemistry and redox reaction effects of polymeric nanofluids. The notion of TEP is to recover the dissipative heat from the heat capacity generated by the relevant machine systems. The thermal conductivity and power density empirical formulas of the novel TEP were derived through the intelligent dimensional analysis with thermoelectric experiments and evaluated at temperatures between 25 and 100 °C and vacuum pressures between 400 and 760 torr. The results revealed that the polymeric nanofluids composed of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles with 0.2 wt.% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) of the novel TEP have the best thermoelectric performance among these electrolytes, including TiO2 nanofluid, TiO2 nanofluid with 0.2 wt.% NaOH, deionized water, and seawater. Furthermore, the thermal conductivity and power density of the novel TEP are 203.1 W/(m·K) and 21.16 W/m3, respectively.
Keywords: electrochemistry; polymeric nanofluid; redox reaction; thermal performance; thermoelectric pipe; two-step synthesis.