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Thermal Power Generation with Use of Battery-Type Cell

Monday, 14 May 2018: 09:20
Room 604 (Washington State Convention Center)
Y. Moritomo (University of Tsukuba), T. Shibata (National Institute of Technology, Gunma College), Y. Fukuzumi, and W. Kobayashi (University of Tsukuba)
The electrochemical thermoelectric coefficient (SEC =dV/dT; V and T are the redox potential and temperature, respectively) is a significant material parameter, because it enables us to convert thermal energy to electric energy. We demonstrate that a battery-type thermocell, which consists of two kinds of Prussian blue analogues (PBAs) with different SEC, produces electric energy during heat cycles. The Figure shows heat cycle of battery-type thermocell against cell voltage (Vcell) and temperature (T). The heat cycle consists of four processes: (i) heating from TL to TH , (ii) discharge at TH, (iii) cooling from TH to TL, and (vi) discharge at TL. The heating and cooling processes are performed without current (I = 0) The device produces electric energy of 2.3 meV/PBA par a heat cycle between 295 K (= TL) and 323 K (= TH). The thermal efficiency (= 1.0 %), which is evaluated with use of the heat capacity (C = 4.16 meV/K) of ideal Na2Co[Fe(CN)6], reaches 11 % of the Carnot efficiency (= 8.7 %). Our battery-type thermocell is a promising thermoelectric device that harvests waste heat near the room temperature.