Solid-State Thermionic Power Generators: An Analytical Analysis in the Nonlinear Regime

Zebarjadi, Mona

doi:10.1103/physrevapplied.8.014008

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Hence by designing the energy barrier to few kBT, one can design the appropriate generator for the given operating temperature, T. In the case of 5 to 10 layers of 2D van der Waals heterostructure, the chemical potential is pinned by the metallic contact but the energy barrier can be engineered with a high degree of flexibility by finding the right sequence of layers. [241], [242] When the thickness of the 2D layered material is comparable or larger than the electron MFP, we see a transition from ballistic transport to diffusive transport which is closer to thermoelectric transport. In this case, transport is mostly a function of the semiconducting layers and the effect of the contacts is minimum and limited to the electrical and thermal contact resistances at the metallic interfaces.…”

Section: Cross-plane Transport: Solid-state Thermionic Structurementioning

confidence: 77%

Nanostructured and Heterostructured 2D Materials for Thermoelectrics

Li¹,

Hao

Zhu

et al. 2020

Eng. Sci.

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The rapid development in the synthesis and device fabrication of 2D materials provides new opportunities for their wide applications in a variety of fields including thermoelectric energy conversion, thermal management, and thermal logics. As one important research direction, the possibly poor thermoelectric performance of the pristine 2D materials can be dramatically improved with patterned nanostructures, stacking of different 2Ds to form layered heterostructures, and electrostatic gating allowing fine-tuning of the quasi Fermi-level. This article reviews the recent advancement in this direction, with emphasis on both fundamental understanding and practical problems.

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Section: Cross-plane Transport: Solid-state Thermionic Structurementioning

confidence: 77%

Nanostructured and Heterostructured 2D Materials for Thermoelectrics

Li¹,

Hao

Zhu

et al. 2020

Eng. Sci.

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“…Unfortunately, solid‐state TECs' lack of a vacuum gap results in large parasitic conductive losses as compared to the relatively small conductive and radiative losses in vacuum micron‐gap converters (see Figure 2). [ 165 ] Solid‐state TECs can be regarded as being similar to thermoelectric converters, which rely on the Seebeck effect, the significant difference being that electrons transit through the semiconductor ballistically in solid‐state TECs whereas they move diffusively in thermoelectric devices. A succinct but helpful discussion is provided by Vining and Mahan, [ 164 ] who found solid‐state thermionic converters to be less efficient than thermoelectric converters in the limit of small temperature differences.…”

Section: New Methods To Mitigate Space Chargementioning

confidence: 99%

Progress Toward High Power Output in Thermionic Energy Converters

Campbell

Celenza

Schmitt³

et al. 2021

Advanced Science

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Thermionic energy converters are solid‐state heat engines that have the potential to produce electricity with efficiencies of over 30% and area‐specific power densities of 100 Wcm−2. Despite this prospect, no prototypes reported in the literature have achieved true efficiencies close to this target, and many of the most recent investigations report power densities on the order of mWcm−2 or less. These discrepancies stem in part from the low‐temperature (<1300 K) test conditions used to evaluate these devices, the large vacuum gap distances (25–100 µm) employed by these devices, and material challenges related to these devices' electrodes. This review will argue that, for feasible electrode work functions available today, efficient performance requires generating output power densities of >1 Wcm−2 and employing emitter temperatures of 1300 K or higher. With this result in mind, this review provides an overview of historical and current design architectures and comments on their capacity to realize the efficiency and power potential of thermionic energy converters. Also emphasized is the importance of using standardized efficiency metrics to report thermionic energy converter performance data.

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“…The working principle was described as follows: when electrons in the hot side were heated to gain enough velocity, they would overcome the energy barrier (material's work function) and move along the out-of-plane direction. Eventually, some of these electrons were collected at another side, and then flowed through the outer circuit [125][126][127]. The current flow was referred to as thermionic current.…”

Section: Solid-state Thermionic Power Generators Based On 2d-tmdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Progress of Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Thermoelectric Applications

et al. 2022

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Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDs) have sparked immense interest, resulting from their unique structural, electronic, mechanical, and thermal properties. The band structures, effective mass, electron mobility, valley degeneracy, and the interactions between phonons and heat transport properties in 2D-TMDs can be efficiently tuned via various approaches. Moreover, the interdependent electrical and thermal conductivity can be modulated independently to facilitate the thermoelectric (TE)-based energy conversion process, which enables optimization of TE properties and promising TE applications. This article briefly reviews the recent development of TE properties in 2D-TMDs. First, the advantages of 2D-TMDs for TE applications are introduced. Then, the manipulations of electrical and thermal transport in 2D-TMDs are briefly discussed, including various influencing factors such as thickness effect, structural defects, and mechanical strain. Finally, the recent advances in the study of electrical, thermal transport, and TE properties of 2D-TMDs, TE-related applications, the challenges, and the future prospects in this field are reviewed.

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Solid-State Thermionic Power Generators: An Analytical Analysis in the Nonlinear Regime

Cited by 18 publications

References 18 publications

Nanostructured and Heterostructured 2D Materials for Thermoelectrics

Nanostructured and Heterostructured 2D Materials for Thermoelectrics

Progress Toward High Power Output in Thermionic Energy Converters

Recent Progress of Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides for Thermoelectric Applications

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