Ion-Electron Coupling Enables Ionic Thermoelectric Material with New Operation Mode and High Energy Density

Overview

Journal Nanomicro Lett

Publisher Springer

Date 2023 Apr 13

PMID 37052861

Authors

Yongjie He

Shaowei Li

Rui Chen

Xu Liu

George Omololu Odunmbaku

Wei Fang

Xiaoxue Lin

Zeping Ou

Qianzhi Gou

Jiacheng Wang

Nabonswende Aida Nadege Ouedraogo

Jing Li

Meng Li

Chen Li

Yujie Zheng

Shanshan Chen

Yongli Zhou

Kuan Sun

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Ionic thermoelectrics (i-TE) possesses great potential in powering distributed electronics because it can generate thermopower up to tens of millivolts per Kelvin. However, as ions cannot enter external circuit, the utilization of i-TE is currently based on capacitive charge/discharge, which results in discontinuous working mode and low energy density. Here, we introduce an ion-electron thermoelectric synergistic (IETS) effect by utilizing an ion-electron conductor. Electrons/holes can drift under the electric field generated by thermodiffusion of ions, thus converting the ionic current into electrical current that can pass through the external circuit. Due to the IETS effect, i-TE is able to operate continuously for over 3000 min. Moreover, our i-TE exhibits a thermopower of 32.7 mV K and an energy density of 553.9 J m, which is more than 6.9 times of the highest reported value. Consequently, direct powering of electronics is achieved with i-TE. This work provides a novel strategy for the design of high-performance i-TE materials.

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