Thermionic Energy Conversion Based on Graphene van der Waals Heterostructures

Liang, Shi-Jun; Liu, Bo; Hu, Wei; Zhou, Kun; Ang, L. K.

doi:10.1038/srep46211

Thermionic Energy Conversion Based on Graphene van der Waals Heterostructures

Journal Article · Fri Apr 07 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46211· OSTI ID:1624903

Liang, Shi-Jun ^[1]; Liu, Bo ^[2]; Hu, Wei ^[3]; Zhou, Kun ^[2]; Ang, L. K. ^[4]

Singapore Univ. of Technology and Design (Singapore); DOE/OSTI
Nanyang Technological Univ. (Singapore)
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Singapore Univ. of Technology and Design (Singapore)

Seeking for thermoelectric (TE) materials with high figure of merit (or ZT), which can directly converts low-grade wasted heat (400 to 500 K) into electricity, has been a big challenge. Inspired by the concept of multilayer thermionic devices, we propose and design a solid-state thermionic devices (as a power generator or a refrigerator) in using van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure sandwiched between two graphene electrodes, to achieve high energy conversion efficiency in the temperature range of 400 to 500 K. The vdW heterostructure is composed of suitable multiple layers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), such as MoS₂, MoSe₂, WS₂ and WSe₂. From our calculations, WSe₂ and MoSe₂ are identified as two ideal TMDs (using the reported experimental material’s properties), which can harvest waste heat at 400 K with efficiencies about 7% to 8%. To our best knowledge, this design is the first in combining the advantages of graphene electrodes and TMDs to function as a thermionic-based device.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: SUTD-MIT International Design Center (IDC); Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); USDOE Office of Science (SC)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1624903

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 7; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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