Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2103.04959

Ionic thermoelectric materials and devices

Dan Zhao·Alois Würger·Xavier Crispin
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The tremendous amount of wasted heat from solar radiation and industry dissipation has motivated the development of thermoelectric concepts that directly convert heat into electricity. The main challenge in practical applications for thermoelectrics is the high cost from both materials and manufacturing. Recently, breakthrough progresses in ionic thermoelectrics open up new possibilities to charge energy storage devices when submitted to a temperature gradient. The charging voltage is internally from the ionic Seebeck effect of the electrolyte between two electrodes. Hence electrolytes with high thermoelectric figure of merit are classified as ionic thermoelectric materials. Most ionic thermoelectric materials are composed of abundant elements, and they can generate hundreds of times larger thermal voltage than that of electronic materials. This emerging thermoelectric category brings new hope to fabricate low cost and large area heat-to-energy conversion devices, and triggers a renewed interest for ionic thermodiffusion. In this review, we summarize the state of the art in the new field of ionic thermoelectrics, from the driving force of the ionic thermodiffusion to material and application developments. We present a general map of ionic thermoelectric materials, discuss the unique characters of each type of the reported electrolytes, and propose potential optimization and future topics of ionic thermoelectrics.

Explore related subjects

physics.app-phcond-mat.mtrl-sci

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Dan Zhao, Alois Würger, Xavier Crispin. 2021-03-08. Ionic thermoelectric materials and devices. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jechem.2021.02.022

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Measuring vacancy-type defect density in monolayer semiconductors

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have attracted wide-spread interest due to their unique and tunable properties. Their optoelectronic, mechanical, and thermal properties are greatly influenced by crystal defects, which are, in turn, used to control these properties. However, experimental quantification of the density of defects, whether deliberately introduced or inherent, is very difficult in these atomically thin materials. Here we show that helium atom micro-diffraction can be used to measure the defect density in ~15x20um monolayer MoS2, a prototypical 2D semiconductor, quickly and easily compared to standard methods. We present a simple analytic model, the lattice gas equation, that captures the relationship between atomic Bragg diffraction intensity and defect density. The model, combined with ab initio scattering calculations, shows that our technique can immediately be applied to a wide range of 2D materials, independent of sample chemistry or structure. Additionally, wafer-scale characterization is immediately possible.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2026

Compact Modeling of Oxide-Semiconductor, 2D Material, Carbon Nanotube, and Cryogenic Transistors with Experiment Verification

This paper presents a unified compact model for emerging transistor technologies, including oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (OSFETs), 2D material FETs (2DFETs), carbon nanotube FETs (CNFETs), and cryogenic MOSFETs. A unified charge-density formulation is developed to account for quantum confinement, trap charges, and band-tail states in channel charge calculations. A physics-based transport model is introduced to seamlessly capture carrier transport from the long-channel diffusive regime to the short-channel ballistic limit. Scaling models are incorporated to accurately describe 2D electrostatic effects. Cryogenic operation is modeled through the inclusion of band-tail states and temperature-dependent mobility and threshold voltage. The proposed model is validated against experimental data from the fabricated OSFETs with multiple channel lengths and published measurements of 2DFETs, CNFETs, and cryogenic MOSFETs. Excellent agreement is demonstrated across diverse device architectures, operating conditions, and material systems.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2026

Multiplexing approaches to thermoradiative signatureless communications

Using mid-infrared emission from semiconductor devices for covert communications remains a relatively unexplored and yet promising opportunity. The phenomenon of negative luminescence allows for a method of signatureless covert communications where the net infrared emission of an emitting optoelectronic device is balanced to be identical to the ambient thermal background. In this work we provide a practical demonstration of covert data transfer over a thermoradiative channel with data rates up to 100 kbps. In addition, we demonstrate several additional multiplexing techniques that make the proposed thermoradiative communications method more secure against interception by achieving zero instantaneous optical emission, while remaining detectable if a sufficiently spatially or spectrally discerning observation is utilised. Finally, we discuss various application scenarios in which the proposed methods can be used to achieve secure signatureless communications.

physics.app-ph↗