An Electricity-Generating Window Made of a Transparent Energy Harvester of Thermocells

Abstract

Windows are primarily for admitting light or air and allowing people to see out. Presented here are windows that can generate electricity while retaining the primary functions. These windows are made of transparent thermocells that convert a temperature difference across the window to electricity. Interconnected p-type and n-type or p-n thermocells are introduced and utilized to scale up the output power of a thermocell window (T-window). The T-window consisting of 2 p-n thermocells provides an output voltage of 60 mV and a power density of 0.5 μW/cm2 for a small temperature difference of 10 °C with an optical transparency of ∼50% in the visible range. The T-window introduced here could pave the way to enhancing energy efficiency in residential environments by capturing naturally available low-grade heat, a new renewable energy source that is otherwise discarded to the surrounding environment.

Thermogalvanic hydrogels for self-powered temperature monitoring in extreme environments

“…Due to its sensitive response to varying temperature, the thermogalvanic gel can not only collect low-grade heat, but is also capable of self-powered monitoring of ambient temperature by converting the temperature change into electronic signals. 45 Given the widespread use of wearable sensors in healthcare monitoring, our gel patch can be used as a skin-like patch to monitor the ambient temperature. Compared to conventional clinical diagnosis that depends on expensive and bulky instruments, wearable sensors could realize real-time and continuous monitoring of health-related signals in a user-friendly way.…”

Nanostructuring Electrode Surfaces and Hydrogels for Enhanced Thermocapacitance

“…High surface area electrodes based on graphene − and carbon nanotubes ,,− have been extensively reported in thermogalvanic cells . These electrodes have displayed a significant increase in power density, due to a combination of extremely high surface area and electrocatalytic effects toward the redox couple. , The effect of first macrostructuring and then nanostructuring the electrodes upon the thermocapacitive process was therefore explored.…”

Thermo-electrochemical cells for heat to electricity conversion: from mechanisms, materials, strategies to applications

“…4A–C present the intensively investigated inorganic redox couples in recent years due to their large entropy change (Δ S rx ) during redox reactions. For example, the typical redox couple ferro/ferricyanide Fe(CN) 6 4−/3− 74–77 shows a huge Δ S rx of −135.1 J K −1 mol −1 , 56 resulting in a negative S i of −1.4 mV K −1 . Moreover, this S i value can be further improved to −2.9 mV K −1 and even −4.2 mV K −1 by adding additives into its aqueous electrolyte.…”

“…97 In another work as presented in Fig. 5D-F, Wang and his co-workers utilized both GO/Pt and PANI as positive and negative electrodes in an Fe 2+/3+ aqueous electrolyte, 98 successfully fabricating a TREC with , 77 Fe 3+/2+ , 78 I À /I 3 À , Q/HQ, 30 PCET, 84 and CP/IPA, 29 respectively. Reproduced with permission.…”

“…Reproduced with permission. 77 Copyright 2021, American Chemical Society. Reproduced with permission.…”