Concentration gradient effect in liquid thermoelectric device composed of organic-solvent-added aqueous solution containing K4[Fe(CN)6]/K3[Fe(CN)6]

Abstract

Abstract A liquid thermoelectric conversion device (LTE), which has a simple device structure composed of low-cost materials, is attracting attention. Here, we investigated the additive effect of methanol (MeOH), acetone, and tetrahydrofuran (THF) on an LTE composed of a K4[Fe(CN)6]/K3[Fe(CN)6] aqueous solution. We  ascribed to the enhancement of the thermal voltage V and electrochemical Seebeck coefficient α to precipitation of K4[Fe(CN)6] and resultant concentration gradient of [Fe(CN)6]3− between the hot and cold electrodes. The enhancement of V and α is quantitatively reproduced by the concentration gradient model incorporating experimentally-obtained solubility s(T) of K4[Fe(CN)6]. We further demonstrated that precipitation enhances the maximum power by as much as 152% in a MeOH-added LTE composed of 0.35 M K4[Fe(CN)6]/K3[Fe(CN)6] aqueous solution at ΔT = 10 K.