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Updated: Aug 14, 2025

Asymmetric Thermoelectrochemical Cell for Harvesting Low-grade Heat under Isothermal Operation
Published on: February 5, 2020
Physics-guided co-designing flexible thermoelectrics with techno-economic sustainability for low-grade heat
Yi Zhou1,2, Xixi Liu3, Baohai Jia1
1Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Thermoelectric Materials, Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
Abstract:
Flexible thermoelectric harvesting of omnipresent spatial thermodynamic energy, though promising in low-grade waste heat recovery (<100°C), is still far from industrialization because of its unequivocal cost-ineffectiveness caused by low thermoelectric efficiency and power-cost coupled device topology. Here, we demonstrate unconventional upcycling of low-grade heat via physics-guided rationalized flexible thermoelectrics, without increasing total heat input or tailoring material properties, into electricity with a power-cost ratio (W/US$) enhancement of 25.3% compared to conventional counterparts. The reduced material usage (44%) contributes to device power-cost "decoupling," leading to geometry-dependent optimal electrical matching for output maximization. This offers an energy consumption reduction (19.3%), electricity savings (0.24 kWh W-1), and CO2 emission reduction (0.17 kg W-1) for large-scale industrial production, fundamentally reshaping the R&D route of flexible thermoelectrics for techno-economic sustainable heat harvesting. Our findings highlight a facile yet cost-effective strategy not only for low-grade heat harvesting but also for electronic co-design in heat management/recovery frontiers.
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