{"title":"用于被动冷却条件下余热回收的水凝胶基热电化学电池。","authors":"Matteo Bevione, Gopal Narmada Naidu, Giulia Tagliabue","doi":"10.1039/d5mh00771b","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>With global energy demands rising and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, capturing low-temperature waste heat, which represents ≈ 60% of overall energy waste, offers a compelling pathway to sustainability. Thermoelectrochemical cells (TECs) are promising for converting low-grade heat into electricity but face limitations with liquid electrolytes, including inefficiency and instability under passive cooling. In this work, we introduce hydrogel-based TECs (HyTECs) as a solution to these challenges, leveraging their low thermal conductivity and permeability to sustain larger thermal gradients and stable operation across diverse conditions. We demonstrate that HyTECs achieve a power output of up to 3.5 μW cm<sup>-2</sup> under passive cooling with a hot temperature of 55-65 °C, comparable to those of state-of-the-art TECs under an externally applied thermal gradient of 10 K cm<sup>-1</sup>. Through thorough experiments and multiphysics modeling, we attribute this performance to the hydrogel's ability to support stable convective cells that enhance redox species transport at the electrode interface. Systematic optimization of key parameters, including redox-pair concentration, electrode separation, and supporting electrolyte levels, revealed that a design with 20 mm electrode spacing, 0.4 M ferro-/ferricyanide, and 0.5 M KCl achieves a power output of 35 mW m<sup>-2</sup>, a Seebeck coefficient of 3.5 mV K<sup>-1</sup>, and a normalized power of 0.6 mW m<sup>-2</sup> K<sup>-2</sup>. Furthermore, HyTECs exhibit robust performance across orientations (0°-150°) around hot pipes, with a 135° inclination delivering peak power due to enhanced convection and thermal gradients. This work establishes HyTECs as a viable platform for efficient waste heat recovery, providing a foundation for their deployment in real-world energy applications.</p>","PeriodicalId":87,"journal":{"name":"Materials Horizons","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":10.7000,"publicationDate":"2025-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12219540/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"Hydrogel-based thermoelectrochemical cells for waste heat recovery under passive cooling conditions.\",\"authors\":\"Matteo Bevione, Gopal Narmada Naidu, Giulia Tagliabue\",\"doi\":\"10.1039/d5mh00771b\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"<p><p>With global energy demands rising and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, capturing low-temperature waste heat, which represents ≈ 60% of overall energy waste, offers a compelling pathway to sustainability. Thermoelectrochemical cells (TECs) are promising for converting low-grade heat into electricity but face limitations with liquid electrolytes, including inefficiency and instability under passive cooling. In this work, we introduce hydrogel-based TECs (HyTECs) as a solution to these challenges, leveraging their low thermal conductivity and permeability to sustain larger thermal gradients and stable operation across diverse conditions. We demonstrate that HyTECs achieve a power output of up to 3.5 μW cm<sup>-2</sup> under passive cooling with a hot temperature of 55-65 °C, comparable to those of state-of-the-art TECs under an externally applied thermal gradient of 10 K cm<sup>-1</sup>. Through thorough experiments and multiphysics modeling, we attribute this performance to the hydrogel's ability to support stable convective cells that enhance redox species transport at the electrode interface. Systematic optimization of key parameters, including redox-pair concentration, electrode separation, and supporting electrolyte levels, revealed that a design with 20 mm electrode spacing, 0.4 M ferro-/ferricyanide, and 0.5 M KCl achieves a power output of 35 mW m<sup>-2</sup>, a Seebeck coefficient of 3.5 mV K<sup>-1</sup>, and a normalized power of 0.6 mW m<sup>-2</sup> K<sup>-2</sup>. Furthermore, HyTECs exhibit robust performance across orientations (0°-150°) around hot pipes, with a 135° inclination delivering peak power due to enhanced convection and thermal gradients. This work establishes HyTECs as a viable platform for efficient waste heat recovery, providing a foundation for their deployment in real-world energy applications.</p>\",\"PeriodicalId\":87,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"Materials Horizons\",\"volume\":\" \",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":10.7000,\"publicationDate\":\"2025-07-02\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12219540/pdf/\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"Materials Horizons\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"88\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5mh00771b\",\"RegionNum\":2,\"RegionCategory\":\"材料科学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q1\",\"JCRName\":\"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Materials Horizons","FirstCategoryId":"88","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1039/d5mh00771b","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"材料科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CHEMISTRY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
摘要
随着全球能源需求的增加和减少温室气体排放的需要,捕获占总能源浪费约60%的低温废热,为实现可持续发展提供了一条令人信服的途径。热电化学电池(tec)有望将低热量转化为电能,但面临液体电解质的限制,包括低效率和被动冷却下的不稳定性。在这项工作中,我们引入了基于水凝胶的tec (hytec)作为解决这些挑战的方案,利用其低导热性和渗透率来维持较大的热梯度,并在各种条件下稳定运行。研究表明,在55-65°C的被动冷却条件下,hytec的输出功率高达3.5 μW cm-2,与目前最先进的tec在10 K cm-1的外部热梯度下的输出功率相当。通过彻底的实验和多物理场建模,我们将这种性能归因于水凝胶支持稳定对流电池的能力,从而增强了电极界面上氧化还原物质的运输。系统优化了氧化还原对浓度、电极分离和支撑电解质水平等关键参数,结果表明,当电极间距为20 mm、铁/铁氰化物浓度为0.4 M、氯化钾浓度为0.5 M时,输出功率为35 mW M -2,塞贝克系数为3.5 mV K-1,归一化功率为0.6 mW M -2 K-2。此外,hytec在热管周围的各个方向(0°-150°)表现出强大的性能,由于对流和热梯度的增强,135°的倾角可提供峰值功率。这项工作奠定了HyTECs作为高效废热回收的可行平台的基础,为其在实际能源应用中的部署奠定了基础。
Hydrogel-based thermoelectrochemical cells for waste heat recovery under passive cooling conditions.
With global energy demands rising and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, capturing low-temperature waste heat, which represents ≈ 60% of overall energy waste, offers a compelling pathway to sustainability. Thermoelectrochemical cells (TECs) are promising for converting low-grade heat into electricity but face limitations with liquid electrolytes, including inefficiency and instability under passive cooling. In this work, we introduce hydrogel-based TECs (HyTECs) as a solution to these challenges, leveraging their low thermal conductivity and permeability to sustain larger thermal gradients and stable operation across diverse conditions. We demonstrate that HyTECs achieve a power output of up to 3.5 μW cm-2 under passive cooling with a hot temperature of 55-65 °C, comparable to those of state-of-the-art TECs under an externally applied thermal gradient of 10 K cm-1. Through thorough experiments and multiphysics modeling, we attribute this performance to the hydrogel's ability to support stable convective cells that enhance redox species transport at the electrode interface. Systematic optimization of key parameters, including redox-pair concentration, electrode separation, and supporting electrolyte levels, revealed that a design with 20 mm electrode spacing, 0.4 M ferro-/ferricyanide, and 0.5 M KCl achieves a power output of 35 mW m-2, a Seebeck coefficient of 3.5 mV K-1, and a normalized power of 0.6 mW m-2 K-2. Furthermore, HyTECs exhibit robust performance across orientations (0°-150°) around hot pipes, with a 135° inclination delivering peak power due to enhanced convection and thermal gradients. This work establishes HyTECs as a viable platform for efficient waste heat recovery, providing a foundation for their deployment in real-world energy applications.