Zinc ion thermal charging cell for low-grade heat conversion and energy storage.

ABSTRACT: Converting low-grade heat from environment into electricity shows great sustainability for mitigating the energy crisis and adjusting energy configurations. However, thermally rechargeable devices typically suffer from poor conversion efficiency when a semiconductor is employed. Breaking the convention of thermoelectric systems, we propose and demonstrate a new zinc ion thermal charging cell to generate electricity from low-grade heat via the thermo-extraction/insertion and thermodiffusion processes of insertion-type cathode (VO₂-PC) and stripping/plating behaviour of Zn anode. Based on this strategy, an impressively high thermopower of ~12.5 mV K^-1 and an excellent output power of 1.2 mW can be obtained. In addition, a high heat-to-current conversion efficiency of 0.

SUBMITTER: Li Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8748914 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature