Polymer Gel with Tunable Conductive Properties: A Material for Thermal Energy Harvesting

Evgenia Vaganova*, Dror Eliaz, Gregory Leitus, Aleksei Solomonov, Faina Dubnikova, Yishay Feldman, Irit Rosenhek-Goldian, Sidney R. Cohen, Ulyana Shimanovich*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The spontaneous gelation of poly(4-vinyl pyridine)/pyridine solution produces materials with conductive properties that are suitable for various energy conversion technologies. The gel is a thermoelectric material with a conductivity of 2.2-5.0 × 10-6S m-1and dielectric constant ϵ = 11.3. On the molecular scale, the gel contains various types of hydrogen bonding, which are formed via self-protonation of the pyridine side chains. Our measurements and calculations revealed that the gelation process produces bias-dependent polymer complexes: quasi-symmetric, strongly hydrogen-bonded species, and weakly bound protonated structures. Under an applied DC bias, the gelled complexes differ in their capacitance/conductive characteristics. In this work, we exploited the bias-responsive characteristics of poly(4-vinyl pyridine) gelled complexes to develop a prototype of a thermal energy harvesting device. The measured device efficiency is S = ΔV/ΔT = 0.18 mV/K within the temperature range of 296-360 K. Investigation of the mechanism underlying the conversion of thermal energy into electric charge showed that the heat-controlled proton diffusion (the Soret effect) produces thermogalvanic redox reactions of hydrogen ions on the anode. The charge can be stored in an external capacitor for heat energy harvesting. These results advance our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying thermal energy conversion in the poly(4-vinyl pyridine)/pyridine gel. A device prototype, enabling thermal energy harvesting, successfully demonstrates a simple path toward the development of inexpensive, low-energy thermoelectric generators.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47747-47754
Number of pages8
JournalACS Omega
Volume7
Issue number51
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Dec 2022

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