Solar-driven photocatalytic water/seawater splitting holds great potential for green hydrogen production.However,the practical application is hindered by the relatively low conversion efficiency resulting from the ina...Solar-driven photocatalytic water/seawater splitting holds great potential for green hydrogen production.However,the practical application is hindered by the relatively low conversion efficiency resulting from the inadequate utilization of solar spectrum with significant waste in the form of heat.Moreover,current equipment struggles to maintain all-day operation subjected to the lack of light during nighttime.Herein,a novel hybrid system integrating photothermal catalytic(PTC)reactor,thermoelectric generator(TEG),and phase change materials(PCM)was proposed and designed(named as PTC-TEG-PCM)to address these challenges and enable simultaneous overall seawater splitting and 24-hour power generation.The PTC system effectively maintains in an optimal temperature range to maximize photothermal-assisted photocatalytic hydrogen production.The TEG component recycles the low-grade waste heat for power generation,complementing the shortcoming of photocatalytic conversion and achieving cascade utilization of full-spectrum solar energy.Furthermore,exceptional thermal storage capability of PCM allow for the conversion of released heat into electricity during nighttime,contributing significantly to the overall power output and enabling PTC-TEG-PCM to operate for more than 12 h under the actual condition.Compared to traditional PTC system,the overall energy conversion efficiency of the PTC-TEG-PCM system can be increased by∼500%,while maintaining the solar-to-hydrogen efficiency.The advancement of this novel system demonstrated that recycling waste heat from the PTC system and utilizing heat absorption/release capability of PCM for thermoelectric application are effective strategies to improve solar energy conversion.With flexible parameter designing,PTC-TEG-PCM can be applied in various scenarios,offering high efficiency,stability,and sustainability.展开更多
To this day, only two types of solar power plants have been proposed and built: high temperature thermal solar one and photovoltaic one. It is here proposed a new type of solar thermal plant using glass-top flat surfa...To this day, only two types of solar power plants have been proposed and built: high temperature thermal solar one and photovoltaic one. It is here proposed a new type of solar thermal plant using glass-top flat surface solar collectors, so working at low temperature (i.e., below 100°C). This power plant is aimed at warm countries, i.e., the ones mainly located between -40° and 40° latitude, having available space along their coast. This land based plant, to install on the seashore, is technologically similar to the one used for OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion). This plant, apart from supplying electricity with a much better thermodynamic efficiency than OTEC plants, has the main advantage of providing desalinated water for drinking and irrigation. This plant is designed to generate electricity (and desalinated water) night and day and all year round, by means of hot water storage, with just a variation of the power delivered depending on the season.展开更多
The past years has observed a significantly boost of the thermoelectric materials in the scale of thermoelectric figure-of-merit,i.e.ZT,because of its promising application to harvest the widely distributed waste heat...The past years has observed a significantly boost of the thermoelectric materials in the scale of thermoelectric figure-of-merit,i.e.ZT,because of its promising application to harvest the widely distributed waste heat.However,the simplified thermoelectric materials'performance scale also shifted the focus of thermoelectric energy conversion technique from devices-related efforts to materials-level works.As a result,the thermoelectric devices-related works didn't get enough attention.The device-level challenges behind were kept unknown until recent years.However,besides the thermoelectric materials properties,the practical energy conversion efficiency and service life of thermoelectric device is highly determined by assembling process and the contact interface.In this perspective,we are trying to shine some light on the device-level challenge,and give a special focus on the thermoelectric interface materials(TEiM)between the thermoelectric elements and electrode,which is also known as the metallization layer or solder barrier layer.We will go through the technique concerns that determine the scope of the TEiM,including bonding strength,interfacial resistance and stability.Some general working principles are summarized before the discussion of some typical examples of searching proper TEiM for a given thermoelectric conversion material.展开更多
基金supported by the Basic Science Center Program for Ordered Energy Conversion of the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52488201)the National Natural Science Foundation of China(52376209)+1 种基金the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2020T130503 and 2020M673386)the China Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
文摘Solar-driven photocatalytic water/seawater splitting holds great potential for green hydrogen production.However,the practical application is hindered by the relatively low conversion efficiency resulting from the inadequate utilization of solar spectrum with significant waste in the form of heat.Moreover,current equipment struggles to maintain all-day operation subjected to the lack of light during nighttime.Herein,a novel hybrid system integrating photothermal catalytic(PTC)reactor,thermoelectric generator(TEG),and phase change materials(PCM)was proposed and designed(named as PTC-TEG-PCM)to address these challenges and enable simultaneous overall seawater splitting and 24-hour power generation.The PTC system effectively maintains in an optimal temperature range to maximize photothermal-assisted photocatalytic hydrogen production.The TEG component recycles the low-grade waste heat for power generation,complementing the shortcoming of photocatalytic conversion and achieving cascade utilization of full-spectrum solar energy.Furthermore,exceptional thermal storage capability of PCM allow for the conversion of released heat into electricity during nighttime,contributing significantly to the overall power output and enabling PTC-TEG-PCM to operate for more than 12 h under the actual condition.Compared to traditional PTC system,the overall energy conversion efficiency of the PTC-TEG-PCM system can be increased by∼500%,while maintaining the solar-to-hydrogen efficiency.The advancement of this novel system demonstrated that recycling waste heat from the PTC system and utilizing heat absorption/release capability of PCM for thermoelectric application are effective strategies to improve solar energy conversion.With flexible parameter designing,PTC-TEG-PCM can be applied in various scenarios,offering high efficiency,stability,and sustainability.
文摘To this day, only two types of solar power plants have been proposed and built: high temperature thermal solar one and photovoltaic one. It is here proposed a new type of solar thermal plant using glass-top flat surface solar collectors, so working at low temperature (i.e., below 100°C). This power plant is aimed at warm countries, i.e., the ones mainly located between -40° and 40° latitude, having available space along their coast. This land based plant, to install on the seashore, is technologically similar to the one used for OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion). This plant, apart from supplying electricity with a much better thermodynamic efficiency than OTEC plants, has the main advantage of providing desalinated water for drinking and irrigation. This plant is designed to generate electricity (and desalinated water) night and day and all year round, by means of hot water storage, with just a variation of the power delivered depending on the season.
基金the support of National Key Project of Research and Development Plan No.2018YFB0703600NSFC program No.51872133 and 51572282Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team Program,No.2016ZT06G578.
文摘The past years has observed a significantly boost of the thermoelectric materials in the scale of thermoelectric figure-of-merit,i.e.ZT,because of its promising application to harvest the widely distributed waste heat.However,the simplified thermoelectric materials'performance scale also shifted the focus of thermoelectric energy conversion technique from devices-related efforts to materials-level works.As a result,the thermoelectric devices-related works didn't get enough attention.The device-level challenges behind were kept unknown until recent years.However,besides the thermoelectric materials properties,the practical energy conversion efficiency and service life of thermoelectric device is highly determined by assembling process and the contact interface.In this perspective,we are trying to shine some light on the device-level challenge,and give a special focus on the thermoelectric interface materials(TEiM)between the thermoelectric elements and electrode,which is also known as the metallization layer or solder barrier layer.We will go through the technique concerns that determine the scope of the TEiM,including bonding strength,interfacial resistance and stability.Some general working principles are summarized before the discussion of some typical examples of searching proper TEiM for a given thermoelectric conversion material.
