High-Efficiency Thermal Energy Harvesting via Ionic Thermoelectric–Electronic Bridging

Ziel

Over 60% of the world’s primary energy is dissipated as waste heat across scales—from industrial processes to the human body—representing a vast yet largely untapped heat resource. Developing efficient technologies to harvest this dispersed and low-grade heat is essential for enabling self-powered wearables, IoT devices, and localized energy recovery systems. Thermoelectric and thermo-electrochemical technologies allow direct heat-to-electricity conversion, but their efficiency remains fundamentally limited: electronic thermoelectrics offer continuous power but low thermovoltage; ionic thermoelectrics generate giant thermovoltage but only transient current; thermogalvanic cells operate continuously but suffer from severe resistive losses.
HEAT-BRIDGE introduces the Thermo-electrochemical Bridge Cell (TBC)—a radically new device concept capable of achieving unprecedented heat-to-electricity conversion efficiency. At its core lies a new mechanism that transduces ionic thermovoltage into continuous electronic current, enabled by redox mediators shuttling between mixed ion–electron conductor (MIEC) regions and their associated electronic pathways. This paradigm uniquely unites the exceptional thermovoltage of ionic systems with the efficient charge transport of electronic systems, thereby opening a route to continuous and high-efficiency heat harvesting.
To realize this vision, the project will: i) demonstrate ionic thermovoltage-driven redox process; ii) develop advanced MIEC electrodes and interlayers; iii) build and validate deformable TBC prototypes; iv) model coupled dynamics for understanding and optimization; and v) scale up modules for real heat sources. Together, these efforts will establish a new principle in heat-to-electricity conversion with major impact across materials science and device engineering, and far-reaching implications for energy sustainability, digital health, and the Internet of Things.

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