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Vol. 16 (2024)

Solvation Engineering via Fluorosurfactant Additive Toward Boosted Lithium-Ion Thermoelectrochemical Cells

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01292-2
Yinghong Xu
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies, College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, People’s Republic of China
Zhiwei Li
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies, College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, People’s Republic of China
Langyuan Wu
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies, College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, People’s Republic of China
Hui Dou
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies, College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, People’s Republic of China
Xiaogang Zhang
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Storage Technologies, College of Material Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, People’s Republic of China

Corresponding Author: Xiaogang Zhang

azhangxg@nuaa.edu.cn

Nano-Micro Letters, Vol. 16 (2024), Article Number: 72

Abstract

Lithium-ion thermoelectrochemical cell (LTEC), featuring simultaneous energy conversion and storage, has emerged as promising candidate for low-grade heat harvesting. However, relatively poor thermosensitivity and heat-to-current behavior limit the application of LTECs using LiPF6 electrolyte. Introducing additives into bulk electrolyte is a reasonable strategy to solve such problem by modifying the solvation structure of electrolyte ions. In this work, we develop a dual-salt electrolyte with fluorosurfactant (FS) additive to achieve high thermopower and durability of LTECs during the conversion of low-grade heat into electricity. The addition of FS induces a unique Li+ solvation with the aggregated double anions through a crowded electrolyte environment, resulting in an enhanced mobility kinetics of Li+ as well as boosted thermoelectrochemical performances. By coupling optimized electrolyte with graphite electrode, a high thermopower of 13.8 mV K−1 and a normalized output power density of 3.99 mW m–2 K–2 as well as an outstanding output energy density of 607.96 J m−2 can be obtained. These results demonstrate that the optimization of electrolyte by regulating solvation structure will inject new vitality into the construction of thermoelectrochemical devices with attractive properties.


Highlights:
1 Solvation engineering toward dual-salt electrolyte by fluorosurfactant additive is proposed, which implements the stable interface of electrode/electrolyte coupled with fast ion thermodiffusion, improving the durability and capability of lithium-ion thermoelectrochemical cell.
2 By combining the optimized electrolyte with functional electrodes, as-constructed device exhibits high Seebeck coefficient and energy density based on hybrid mechanisms, which can be extended as self-power supply for smart electronics.

Keywords

Solvation engineering Fluorosurfactant Ionic thermoelectric Lithium-ion thermoelectrochemical cell Low-grade heat
Xu, Yinghong, Zhiwei Li, Langyuan Wu, Hui Dou, and Xiaogang Zhang. 2024. “Solvation Engineering via Fluorosurfactant Additive Toward Boosted Lithium-Ion Thermoelectrochemical Cells”. Nano-Micro Letters 16 (January):72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40820-023-01292-2.
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