Thermosensitive crystallization-boosted liquid thermocells for low-grade heat harvesting.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32913001.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/science.abd6749.
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Abstract
Low-grade heat (below 373 kelvin) is abundant and ubiquitous but is mostly wasted because present recovery technologies are not cost-effective. 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 (η<sub>r</sub>) reaches ~5%, which is a challenging metric to achieve experimentally. We used a thermosensitive crystallization and dissolution process to induce a persistent concentration gradient of redox ions, a highly enhanced Seebeck coefficient (~3.73 millivolts per kelvin), and suppressed thermal conductivity in LTCs. As a result, we achieved a high η<sub>r</sub> of 11.1% for LTCs near room temperature. Our device demonstration offers promise for cost-effective low-grade heat harvesting.