Liquid Thermoelectrics: Review of Recent And Limited New Data of Thermogalvanic Cell Experiments

• Published in: Nanoscale and microscale thermophysical engineering Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 304 - 323
• Main Authors: Gunawan, Andrey, Lin, Chao-Han, Buttry, Daniel A., Mujica, Vladimiro, Taylor, Robert A., Prasher, Ravi S., Phelan, Patrick E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Colchester Taylor & Francis 01.11.2013; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Coefficients; Copper; Direct energy conversion and energy accumulation; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrical power engineering; Electricity; Electricity generation; Exact sciences and technology; Generators; liquid thermoelectric; Liquids; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; nonisothermal cell; Power generation; thermo-electrochemical cell; thermocell; Thermoelectric conversion; Thermoelectricity; thermogalvanic cell; thermogalvanic generator; nonisothermal cell; thermo-electrochemical cell; liquid thermoelectric; thermogalvanic cell; thermocell; Review; Electrochromic device; Thermoelectrochemical cell; Performance; thermogalvanic generator; Thermoelectricity
• ISSN: 1556-7265; 1556-7273
• DOI: 10.1080/15567265.2013.776149

Experimental studies on thermogalvanic cells (or thermo-electrochemical cells or simply thermocells) have shown promising results in the past two decades since being introduced in 1825. Recent literature on this topic ranging from aqueous redox couple cells to nonaqueous and molten salt thermogalvanic cells is reviewed and compared. Some limited new experimental data on power generation for the underdeveloped Cu-CuSO 4 system are also reported. The Seebeck coefficient values of these experiments fit with a characteristic model extracted from a 1959 paper by deBethune et al. (Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 106, 1959). The power generation results are compared with the few previously reported values of the Cu-CuSO 4 system by Holeschovsky (Analysis of Flooded Flow Fuel Cells and Thermogalvanic Generators, 1994) and Tester et al. (Evaluation of Thermogalvanic Cells for the Conversion of Heat to Electricity, 1992), including those published by Kuzminskii et al. (Journal of Power Sources, Vol. 52, 1994) and Quickenden and Mua (Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 142, 1995). Condensing the recently published literature, this article presents recent trends and identifies future possibilities or directions for realizing this attractive concept, which has been around for a long time.