High Seebeck Coefficient Thermally Chargeable Supercapacitor with Synergistic Effect of Multichannel Ionogel Electrolyte and Ti3C2Tx MXene-Based Composite Electrode

Abstract

Thermally chargeable supercapacitors can collect low-grade heat generated by the human body and convert it into electricity as a power supply unit for wearable electronics. However, the low Seebeck coefficient and heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency hinder further application. In this paper, we designed a high-performance thermally chargeable supercapacitor device composed of ZnMn₂O₄@Ti₃C₂T_x MXene composites (ZMO@Ti₃C₂T_x MXene) electrode and UIO-66 metal–organic framework doped multichannel polyvinylidene fluoridehexafluoro-propylene ionogel electrolyte, which realized the thermoelectric conversion and electrical energy storage at the same time. This thermally chargeable supercapacitor device exhibited a high Seebeck coefficient of 55.4 mV K⁻¹, thermal voltage of 243 mV, and outstanding heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency of up to 6.48% at the temperature difference of 4.4 K. In addition, this device showed excellent charge–discharge cycling stability at high-temperature differences (3 K) and low-temperature differences (1 K), respectively. Connecting two thermally chargeable supercapacitor units in series, the generated output voltage of 500 mV further confirmed the stability of devices. When a single device was worn on the arm, a thermal voltage of 208.3 mV was obtained indicating the possibility of application in wearable electronics.