Research Focus

At present, the global power production mainly depends on fossil fuels (67%), hydropower (16%) and nuclear energy (11%), while the proportion of wind energy (4%) and solar energy (2%) is increasing. However, the conversion and utilization efficiency of primary energy is not high. The efficiency of heat engine is 35% - 50% and that of solar cell is 15% - 40%. Therefore, a large amount of energy is wasted in the form of heat energy.

Thermoelectric conversion technology can realize the conversion of difficult to use low-grade heat energy to efficient and clean electric energy. Its basic principle is to use the Seebeck effect of conductor or semiconductor to drive the carrier to form directional migration under the temperature difference, so as to realize the conversion from heat to electricity. According to the types of carriers, thermoelectric materials can be divided into electronic thermoelectric materials (e-te) and ionic thermoelectric materials (i-te). Since the carriers of e-te are electrons and holes, the voltage generated by e-te under temperature difference is usually very low (< 200 μ V / k), and the working voltage of normal electronic components is usually above 1.5V. Therefore, the operation of e-te is usually thousands of thermoelectric devices in series, which is easy to be damaged and energy loss. I-te takes ions as carriers, and the voltage generated by it is usually several to tens of millivolts per switch. The temperature difference generated at room temperature can meet the conditions of supplying power to electronic components. However, the existing ion thermoelectric conversion theory is not deep enough, and the energy density and power density of existing ion thermoelectric materials are still very low. Therefore, it is urgent to study the thermal diffusion of ions on ionic conductors and take new ways to improve the power of i-te.