Enhanced thermoelectric performance enabled by compositing ZrO_(2)in n-type SiGe alloy with low thermal conductivity

SiGe-based thermoelectric(TE)materials have gained increasing interests due to their low maintenance costs,environmental friendliness and long lifespan.However,the intrinsically high thermal conductivity of Si-based materials also results in poor TE properties.In this investigation,a zirconia(ZrO_(2))composite strategy was applied to an n-type SiGe alloy,tremendously elevating its TE performance.After mechanical alloying and spark plasma sintering(SPS)processes,the ZrO_(2)induced the formation of nanopores in the SiGe matrix via phosphorus adsorption.Moreover,such increase in porosity enhanced the phonon scattering and dramatically suppressed lattice thermal conductivity,from 2.83 to 1.59 W·m^(-1)·K^(-1)at 873 K.Additionally,reduced phosphorus doping led to an increase in Seebeck coefficients and a relatively minor decrease in electrical conductivity,The power factor didn't deteriorate significantly,either,as its maximum of~3.43 mW·m^(-1-)K^(-2)was achieved at 873 K with(Si_(0.8)Ge_(0.2))_(0.097)P_(0.03)(ZrO_(2))_(0.003).In short,a peak figure of merit(ZT)of~1.27 at 873 K and an average ZT~0.7 from 323 to 873 K were obtained.This study demonstrates that the electrical and thermal transportation of SiGe material can be synergistically tuned by compositing ZrO_(2),illustrating a novel strategy to optimize the TE properties of bulk materials.

A tartrate-EDTA-Fe complex mediates electron transfer and enhances ammonia recovery in a bioelectrochemical-stripping system

Traditional bioelectrochemical systems(BESs)coupled with stripping units for ammonia recovery suffer from an insufficient supply of electron acceptors due to the low solubility of oxygen.In this study,we proposed a novel strategy to efficiently transport the oxidizing equivalent provided at the stripping unit to the cathode by introducing a highly soluble electron mediator(EM)into the catholyte.To validate this strategy,we developed a new kind of iron complex system(tartrate-EDTA-Fe)as the EM.EDTA-Fe contributed to the redox property with a midpoint potential of
0.075 V(vs.standard hydrogen electrode,SHE)at pH 10,whereas tartrate acted as a stabilizer to avoid iron precipitation under alkaline conditions.At a ratio of the catholyte recirculation rate to the anolyte flow rate(RC-A)of 12,the NH4 t-N recovery rate in the system with 50mM tartrate-EDTA-Fe complex reached 6.9±0.2 g Nm^(-2) d^(-1),approximately 3.8 times higher than that in the non-EM control.With the help of the complex,our system showed an NH4 t-N recovery performance comparable to that previously reported but with an extremely low RC-A(0.5 vs.288).The strategy proposed here may guide the future of ammonia recovery BES scale-up because the introduction of an EM allows aeration to be performed only at the stripping unit instead of at every cathode,which is beneficial for the system design due to its simplicity and reliability.