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Updated: Oct 10, 2026

Asymmetric Thermoelectrochemical Cell for Harvesting Low-grade Heat under Isothermal Operation
Published on: February 5, 2020
Chemically engineered electrode interfaces boost ionic thermoelectrics
Shitao Yang1, Chenhao Song1, Yingchao Ma1
1Key Laboratory of Advanced Light Conversion Materials and Biophotonics, School of Chemistry and Life Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China. ycma@ruc.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Currently, the ionic thermal diffusion effect is regarded as the mainstream theory for ionic thermoelectric materials, while little attention has been paid to the influence of the physicochemical properties of the electrode-electrolyte interface on the thermoelectric voltage. This work utilizes interfacial chemical modification to manipulate ion distribution at the electrode-electrolyte interface and investigates how this factor affects the thermoelectric voltage, providing direct evidence that the differences in ion desorption at the interface influence the thermoelectric voltage. In particular, the employment of an electrode in which cations are anchored via gold-sulfur bonds strengthens the interfacial differential electric field and increases the ionic Seebeck coefficient by approximately 25.7% compared with bare gold electrodes. This improvement is attributed to the increased disparity in desorption triggered by temperature between the cations and anions at the interface. This principle is expected to become another critical guideline for the design of high-performance ionic thermoelectric materials.
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