TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermo-osmotic ionogel enabled high-efficiency harvesting of low-grade heat
AU - Li, Wei
AU - Liu, Yuchen
AU - Zhang, Zimeng
AU - Liu, Ruochen
AU - Qiu, Jingjing
AU - Wang, Shiren
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is partially supported by the National Science Foundation (CMMI-1934120 and CMMI-1933679).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Royal Society of Chemistry 2021.
PY - 2021/7/28
Y1 - 2021/7/28
N2 - Low efficiency in recovering low-grade heat remains unresolved despite decades of attempts. In this research, we designed and fabricated a novel thermo-osmotic ionogel (TOI) composite to recover low-grade heat to generate electric power through a thermo-induced ion gradient and selective ion diffusion. The TOI composite was assembled with a crystalline ionogel (polymer-confined LiNO3-3H2O) film, ion selective membrane, and hydrogel film. With a 90 °C heat supply, the single TOI composite produced a high open-circuit voltage of 0.52 V, a differential thermal voltage of ∼26 mV K−1, a peak power density of 0.4 W m−2, and a ground-breaking peak energy conversion efficiency of 11.17%. Eight pieces of such a TOI composite were connected in series, demonstrating an open-circuit voltage of 3.25 volts. Such a TOI system was also demonstrated to harvest body temperature for powering a LED, opening numerous opportunities in powering wearable devices.
AB - Low efficiency in recovering low-grade heat remains unresolved despite decades of attempts. In this research, we designed and fabricated a novel thermo-osmotic ionogel (TOI) composite to recover low-grade heat to generate electric power through a thermo-induced ion gradient and selective ion diffusion. The TOI composite was assembled with a crystalline ionogel (polymer-confined LiNO3-3H2O) film, ion selective membrane, and hydrogel film. With a 90 °C heat supply, the single TOI composite produced a high open-circuit voltage of 0.52 V, a differential thermal voltage of ∼26 mV K−1, a peak power density of 0.4 W m−2, and a ground-breaking peak energy conversion efficiency of 11.17%. Eight pieces of such a TOI composite were connected in series, demonstrating an open-circuit voltage of 3.25 volts. Such a TOI system was also demonstrated to harvest body temperature for powering a LED, opening numerous opportunities in powering wearable devices.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85111072008&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1039/d1ta01836a
DO - 10.1039/d1ta01836a
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85111072008
SN - 2050-7488
VL - 9
SP - 15755
EP - 15765
JO - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
JF - Journal of Materials Chemistry A
IS - 28
ER -