Enhancement of Thermal to Electrical Energy Conversion with Thermal Diodes

Abstract

ABSTRACTExperiments demonstrating thermal to electrical energy conversion using thermal diodes have shown an enhancement of the open circuit voltage over the thermoelectric open circuit voltage. Two different physical mechanisms are proposed to be responsible for the effects seen: (1) Thermionic injection from the emitter can occur when a temperature gradient is present, which induces an increased ohmic return current under zero-current conditions. (2) Blockage of the ohmic return current leads to a voltage increase for both thermoelectric and thermionic forward currents. Both effects increase the efficiency of energy conversion. Experiments show enhancements of the figure of merit in the range of 5-8 over the thermoelectric values. The best results are consistent with a single-side conversion efficiency in excess of 30% of the Carnot limit.