Aqueous thermogalvanic cells with a high Seebeck coefficient for low-grade heat harvest

Jiangjiang Duan, Guang Feng, Boyang Yu, Jia Li, Ming Chen, Peihua Yang, Jiamao Feng, Kang Liu and Jun Zhou ()
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Jiangjiang Duan: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Guang Feng: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Boyang Yu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Jia Li: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Ming Chen: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Peihua Yang: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Jiamao Feng: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Kang Liu: Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Jun Zhou: Huazhong University of Science and Technology

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Thermogalvanic cells offer a cheap, flexible and scalable route for directly converting heat into electricity. However, achieving a high output voltage and power performance simultaneously from low-grade thermal energy remains challenging. Here, we introduce strong chaotropic cations (guanidinium) and highly soluble amide derivatives (urea) into aqueous ferri/ferrocyanide ([Fe(CN)6]4−/[Fe(CN)6]3−) electrolytes to significantly boost their thermopowers. The corresponding Seebeck coefficient and temperature-insensitive power density simultaneously increase from 1.4 to 4.2 mV K−1 and from 0.4 to 1.1 mW K−2 m−2, respectively. The results reveal that guanidinium and urea synergistically enlarge the entropy difference of the redox couple and significantly increase the Seebeck effect. As a demonstration, we design a prototype module that generates a high open-circuit voltage of 3.4 V at a small temperature difference of 18 K. This thermogalvanic cell system, which features high Seebeck coefficient and low cost, holds promise for the efficient harvest of low-grade thermal energy.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07625-9

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