High power density thermogalvanic cell using titanium carbide electrodes

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a thermogalvanic cell using and applying a new material and structure. Thermogalvanic cells using the titanium carbide electrodes and the comb drive structure exhibit high normalized power density. This shows the possibility of overcoming the low power density which is presented as a disadvantage of existing thermogalvanic cells.

The newly proposed ceramic material, titanium carbide, has never been used in thermogalvanic cells and exhibits a higher level of thermoelectric performance than conventional platinum when used as electrodes. In addition, the titanium carbide electrodes shows higher power density than that of the nanomaterial which was used for increasing the surface area. The electrochemical resistance analysis showed that the activation resistance was small. As a result, it was confirmed that the overall resistance of the thermogalvanic cell was reduced and the performance is high.

The comb drive structure was newly designed and applied to the thermogalvanic cells to obtain a higher level of thermoelectric performance. The thermogalvanic cell was designed to combine the two fin structures to maximize the ion transfer efficiency by minimizing the distance between the electrodes while enlarging the surface area. As a result, the power per unit area per unit temperature (normalized power density) of 3.615 mW K-2 m-2 was obtained. This is more than twice as high as the previously reported value. This shows the potential of thermogalvanic cells to overcome the low level of power density.

Finally, this paper presents a thermogalvanic cell that uses a titanium carbide material and a comb drive structure to exhibit a high level of power density. The proposed thermogalvanic cell is a semi-permanent and environment-friendly device. If there is an improvement in power density through further studies, the thermogalvanic cell can be sufficiently used for industry by increasing the low density power which is a disadvantage of the present thermogalvanic cell.