Reversible bipolar thermopower of ionic thermoelectric polymer composite for cyclic energy generation

• Published in: Nature communications 2023-01, Vol.14 (1), p.306-9, Article 306
• Main Authors: Chi, Cheng, Liu, Gongze, An, Meng, Zhang, Yufeng, Song, Dongxing, Qi, Xin, Zhao, Chunyu, Wang, Zequn, Du, Yanzheng, Lin, Zizhen, Lu, Yang, Huang, He, Li, Yang, Lin, Chongjia, Ma, Weigang, Huang, Baoling, Du, Xiaoze, Zhang, Xing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 119/118; 140/133; 140/146; 147/135; 639/301/299/2736; 639/4077/4107; Anions; Cations; Composite materials; Electrodes; Heat; Heat recovery; Humanities and Social Sciences; Ions; Modules; multidisciplinary; Polymer matrix composites; Polymers; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Temperature gradients; Temperature requirements; Thermal cycling; Thermoelectric generators; Thermoelectric materials; Waste heat recovery; Waste recovery
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36018-w

The giant thermopower of ionic thermoelectric materials has attracted great attention for waste-heat recovery technologies. However, generating cyclic power by ionic thermoelectric modules remains challenging, since the ions cannot travel across the electrode interface. Here, we reported a reversible bipolar thermopower (+20.2 mV K −1 to −10.2 mV K −1 ) of the same composite by manipulating the interactions of ions and electrodes. Meanwhile, a promising ionic thermoelectric generator was proposed to achieve cyclic power generation under a constant heat course only by switching the external electrodes that can effectively realize the alternating dominated thermodiffusion of cations and anions. It eliminates the necessity to change the thermal contact between material and heat, nor does it require re-establish the temperature differences, which can favor improving the efficiency of the ionic thermoelectrics. Furthermore, the developed micro-thermal sensors demonstrated high sensitivity and responsivity in light detecting, presenting innovative impacts on exploring next-generation ionic thermoelectric devices. Generating continuous power by ionic thermoelectric material modules remains challenging. Here, the authors find the ionic thermoelectric material exhibiting bipolar thermopower property by manipulating the interactions between ions and electrodes.