Ni Feng, Xiao Peng, Zhang Chang, Zhou Wei, Liu Depeng, Kuo Shiao-Wei, Chen Tao
Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Related Technologies, Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Marine Materials and Protective Technologies, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo, 315201, China.
School of Chemical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Adv Mater. 2021 Dec;33(49):e2103937. doi: 10.1002/adma.202103937. Epub 2021 Oct 13.
In thermoelectric generator (TEG) systems, heat dissipation from their cold sides is an accessible, low-cost, and effective way to increase the temperature gap for their thermoelectric performance enhancement. Although significant efforts have been dedicated mediated by hygroscopic hydrogel coolers as self-sustained alternatives for effective heat removal, it still remains a challenge for overcoming instabilities in their cooling process. The inevitable mechanical deformation of these conventional hydrogels induced by excessive water desorption may cause a detached cooling interface with the targeted substrates, leading to undesirable cooling failure. Herein, a self-sustained and durable evaporative cooling approach for TEG enabled by atmospheric hygroscopic ionogels (RIGs) with stable interfaces to efficiently improve its thermoelectric performance is proposed. Owing to its superior hygroscopicity, the RIGs can achieve higher heat dissipation for TEG through water evaporation than that of common commercial metal heat sinks. Moreover, its favorable adhesion enables the RIG closely interact with the TEG surface either in static or dynamic conditions for a durable thermoelectric performance enhancement. It is believed that such a self-sustained evaporative cooling strategy based on the RIG will have great implications for the enhancement of TEG's efficiency, demonstrating a great promise in intermittent thermal-energy utilizations.
在热电发电机（TEG）系统中，从其冷端散热是一种可行、低成本且有效的方法，可增加温度差以提高其热电性能。尽管已经做出了巨大努力，通过吸湿水凝胶冷却器作为有效的散热自维持替代方案，但克服其冷却过程中的不稳定性仍然是一个挑战。这些传统水凝胶因过度脱水而不可避免地发生机械变形，可能导致与目标基板的冷却界面分离，从而导致不理想的冷却失效。在此，提出了一种由具有稳定界面的大气吸湿离子凝胶（RIG）实现的用于TEG的自维持且持久的蒸发冷却方法，以有效提高其热电性能。由于其优异的吸湿性，RIG通过水蒸发可为TEG实现比普通商用金属散热器更高的散热。此外，其良好的粘附性使RIG在静态或动态条件下都能与TEG表面紧密相互作用，以持久提高热电性能。据信，这种基于RIG的自维持蒸发冷却策略对提高TEG的效率具有重要意义，在间歇性热能利用方面显示出巨大的潜力。
