Mu Kaiyu, Wang Xun, Ho Li Ka, Huang Yu-Ting, Feng Shien-Ping
Electrochemical Nanoengineering Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong.
Electrochemical Nanoengineering Group, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Hong Kong;
J Vis Exp. 2020 Feb 5(156). doi: 10.3791/60768.
Low-grade heat is abundantly available in the environment as waste heat. The efficient conversion of low-grade heat into electricity is very difficult. We developed an asymmetric thermoelectrochemical cell (aTEC) for heat-to-electricity conversion under isothermal operation in the charging and discharging processes without exploiting the thermal gradient or the thermal cycle. The aTEC is composed of a graphene oxide (GO) cathode, a polyaniline (PANI) anode, and 1M KCl as the electrolyte. The cell generates a voltage due to the pseudocapacitive reaction of GO when heating from room temperature (RT) to a high temperature (TH, ~40-90 °C), and then current is successively produced by oxidizing PANI when an external electrical load is connected. The aTEC demonstrates a remarkable temperature coefficient of 4.1 mV/K and a high heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of 3.32%, working at a TH = 70 °C with a Carnot efficiency of 25.3%, unveiling a new promising thermoelectrochemical technology for low-grade heat recovery.
环境中存在大量的低品位热作为废热。将低品位热高效转化为电能非常困难。我们开发了一种不对称热电化学电池（aTEC），用于在充电和放电过程中的等温运行下将热转化为电，无需利用热梯度或热循环。aTEC由氧化石墨烯（GO）阴极、聚苯胺（PANI）阳极和1M KCl作为电解质组成。当从室温（RT）加热到高温（TH，约40 - 90°C）时，该电池由于GO的赝电容反应而产生电压，然后当连接外部电负载时，通过氧化PANI相继产生电流。aTEC表现出显著的4.1 mV/K温度系数和3.32%的高热 - 电转换效率，在TH = 70°C下运行，卡诺效率为25.3%，揭示了一种用于低品位热回收的有前景的新型热电化学技术。
