Direct thermal charging cell for converting low-grade heat to electricity.

ABSTRACT: Efficient low-grade heat recovery can help to reduce greenhouse gas emission as over 70% of primary energy input is wasted as heat, but current technologies to fulfill the heat-to-electricity conversion are still far from optimum. Here we report a direct thermal charging cell, using asymmetric electrodes of a graphene oxide/platinum nanoparticles cathode and a polyaniline anode in Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺ redox electrolyte via isothermal heating operation. When heated, the cell generates voltage via a temperature-induced pseudocapacitive effect of graphene oxide and a thermogalvanic effect of Fe²⁺/Fe³⁺, and then discharges continuously by oxidizing polyaniline and reducing Fe³⁺ under isothermal heating till Fe³⁺ depletion. The cell can be self-regenerated when cooled down. Direct thermal charging cells attain a temperature coefficient of 5.0?mV?K^-1 and heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 2.8% at 70?°C (21.4% of Carnot efficiency) and 3.52% at 90?°C (19.7% of Carnot efficiency), outperforming other thermoelectrochemical and thermoelectric systems.

SUBMITTER: Wang X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6742635 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature