• Energy Research

Societal Challenges demand for Advanced Materials, which in turn promise economical potential. Material Acceleration Platforms (MAPs) will decrease their development time and cost. We comment on implications for science, industry and policy concluding with necessary steps towards establishment of MAPs. This Preprint has been revised and published with additional details on the historical background and concrete scientific results achieved at https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/the-successful-transition-to-renewables-needs-a-revolution-in-materials-research/

Thermo-electrochemical cells (or thermocells) represent a promising technology to convert waste heat energy into electrical energy, generating power with minimal material consumption and a limited carbon footprint. Recently, the adoption of ionic liquids has pushed both the operational temperature range and the power output of thermocells. This research discusses the design challenges and the key performance limitations that need to be addressed to deploy the thermocells in real-world applications. For this purpose, a unique up-scaled design of a thermocell is proposed, in which the materials are selected according to the techno-economic standpoint. Specifically, the electrolyte is composed of EMI-TFSI ionic liquid supplemented by [Co(ppy)]3+/2+ redox couples characterized by a positive Seebeck coefficient (1.5 mV/K), while the electrodes consist of carbon-based materials characterized by a high surface area. Such electrodes, adopted to increase the rate of the electrode reactions, lead to a thermoelectric performance one order of magnitude greater than the Pt electrode-based counterpart. However, the practical applications of thermocells are still limited by the low power density and low voltage that can be generated.