TY - JOUR
T1 - Novel porous thermosensitive gel electrolytes for wearable thermo-electrochemical cells
AU - Zhou, Yuetong
AU - Zhang, Shuai
AU - Buckingham, Mark A.
AU - Aldous, Leigh
AU - Beirne, Stephen
AU - Wu, Chang
AU - Liu, Yuqing
AU - Wallace, Gordon
AU - Chen, Jun
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was financially supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence Scheme (Nos. DP170102320 and CE 140100012) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 52002050). The authors would like to extend their gratitude to the Materials Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility and UOW EMC Centre.
Funding Information:
This study was financially supported by the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence Scheme (Nos. DP170102320 and CE 140100012) and the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 52002050). The authors would like to extend their gratitude to the Materials Node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility and UOW EMC Centre.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/12/1
Y1 - 2022/12/1
N2 - Thermo-electrochemical cells (TECs) represent an efficient and low-cost heat-harvesting device that can directly convert human body heat energy into electricity. However, the flexible, solid-state gelled electrolytes used in wearable thermocell devices suffer from poor mass transport of electrolyte. Here, a novel porous gel is developed via sodium acetate (NaAc) templates and freeze-drying treatment that is applied in p-type gelled electrolyte: poly-acrylamide (PAM) - K3/4[Fe(CN)6] and integrated into platinum (Pt) electrodes for wearable devices. Moreover, the guanidinium ([Gdm]+) is initially introduced into gelled electrolytes, and the p-type cell effectively boosts the maximum power density from 4.01 to 7.68 mW m−2 at ΔT = 10 °C, and exhibits a quick thermosensitive response under a broad temperature range (15 – 55 °C), which is sufficient for working conditions of wearable devices. The optimised porous gel host was also utilized in series with an n-type: PAM-FeCl2/3-HCl gelled electrolyte. The multiple thermocells (12 pairs) were further fabricated into a device by alternating p- and n-type cells in series. This device was found to output nearly 0.23 V at ΔT = 10 °C, and was manufactured into a flexible wearable device that was demonstrated to successfully harvest human body heat by both charging a supercapacitor (100 mF), and illuminating an LED, demonstrating the potential of actual application of our n-p-type in series devices.
AB - Thermo-electrochemical cells (TECs) represent an efficient and low-cost heat-harvesting device that can directly convert human body heat energy into electricity. However, the flexible, solid-state gelled electrolytes used in wearable thermocell devices suffer from poor mass transport of electrolyte. Here, a novel porous gel is developed via sodium acetate (NaAc) templates and freeze-drying treatment that is applied in p-type gelled electrolyte: poly-acrylamide (PAM) - K3/4[Fe(CN)6] and integrated into platinum (Pt) electrodes for wearable devices. Moreover, the guanidinium ([Gdm]+) is initially introduced into gelled electrolytes, and the p-type cell effectively boosts the maximum power density from 4.01 to 7.68 mW m−2 at ΔT = 10 °C, and exhibits a quick thermosensitive response under a broad temperature range (15 – 55 °C), which is sufficient for working conditions of wearable devices. The optimised porous gel host was also utilized in series with an n-type: PAM-FeCl2/3-HCl gelled electrolyte. The multiple thermocells (12 pairs) were further fabricated into a device by alternating p- and n-type cells in series. This device was found to output nearly 0.23 V at ΔT = 10 °C, and was manufactured into a flexible wearable device that was demonstrated to successfully harvest human body heat by both charging a supercapacitor (100 mF), and illuminating an LED, demonstrating the potential of actual application of our n-p-type in series devices.
KW - Human body heat
KW - Porous gel electrolyte
KW - Thermo-electrochemical cells
KW - Thermosensitive
KW - Wearable device
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132920907&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cej.2022.137775
DO - 10.1016/j.cej.2022.137775
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132920907
SN - 1385-8947
VL - 449
JO - CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
JF - CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
M1 - 137775
ER -