| Start of section
Production, amateur Radio amateurs Aircraft model, rocket-model Useful, entertaining |
Stealth Master
Electronics Physics Technologies Inventions |
Secrets of the cosmos
Secrets of the Earth Secrets of the Ocean Tricks Map of section |
  |
| Use of the site materials is allowed subject to the link (for websites - hyperlinks) | |||
Navigation: => |
Home / Patent catalog / Catalog section / Back / |
|
INVENTION
Patent of the Russian Federation RU2216828
METHOD OF THERMOELECTRIC ENERGY TRANSFORMATION
The name of the inventor: Grachev GN ; Nikiforov AA; Sergey Traashkeev
The name of the patent owner: Nikiforov Alexey Alexandrovich
Address for correspondence: 630097, Novosibirsk-97, PO Box 21, VVSkoromu
Date of commencement of the patent: 2001.08.07
The invention relates to the field of energy, in particular to converters of thermal energy to electrical, and can be used in the creation of direct-acting converters that convert thermal energy directly into electrical energy with a high efficiency. According to the invention, the method of thermoelectric energy conversion involves placing two dissimilar elements at different temperatures, the elements being made in the form of electrodes with heterogeneous physicochemical properties of surfaces that are disposed with each other with a gap, the gap being filled with a conductive liquid with nonlinear anisotropic properties. The technical result of the invention is to increase the efficiency of energy conversion.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to the field of energy, in particular to converters of thermal energy to electrical, and can be used in the creation of direct-acting converters that convert thermal energy directly into electrical energy with a high coefficient of efficiency.
At present, the task of creating simple, reliable and inexpensive direct-acting converters that convert directly thermal energy into electrical energy with high, more than 50% efficiency, is becoming very urgent all over the world. In many respects this is due to the fact that now for the generation of electricity, mankind uses non-renewable natural resources, which, in addition, during the combustion form greenhouse gases that interfere with the Earth's ecosystem and lead to global warming.
A method of direct energy conversion using a photoelectric effect is known (see Physical Encyclopedia, Moscow, 1998, vol. 5, pp. 368-369). The method consists in irradiating interconnected plates of n-type semiconductor material and p-type with photons of light energy, under the action of which free charge carriers are formed in the material, and hence a constant electric current can flow.
The drawbacks of photoelectric converters include, first, low efficiency. This is due to the fact that the photoelectric effect is manifested mainly under the influence of visible and ultraviolet radiation. Therefore, for the best converters, the conversion coefficient of solar radiation - the ratio of the electrical power developed by the converters in the rated load, to the incident light power reaches 15-18%.
Secondly, the power output from photoelectric converters usually does not exceed several tens of W / m 2 . Consequently, to create powerful converters requires a large area.
The method closest to the claimed technical solution (prototype) is the method of direct thermoelectric energy conversion (see Physical Encyclopedia, M., 1998, vol. 5, p. 99), based on the Seebeck effect, including the placement of two connected at different temperatures Of dissimilar conductive elements of semiconductor materials.
The main disadvantage of the known method of energy conversion, as for the above analogue, is a low efficiency, which does not exceed 15% for the best semiconductor converters. In order to obtain a converter with a power of several watts, several hundreds of elements are needed, which significantly increases the cost of such a device and is slightly suitable for wide application.
The present invention is directed to solving the problem of eliminating the above disadvantages, namely, to create a method for thermoelectric energy conversion with high efficiency, suitable for use in devices intended for wide application.
The task of creating a method for thermoelectric energy conversion comprising the placement of two dissimilar elements at different temperatures is solved by the fact that the elements are made in the form of electrodes with heterogeneous physicochemical properties of surfaces that are disposed with each other with a gap, the gap being filled with a conductive liquid with nonlinear Anisotropic properties. The performance of electrodes with heterogeneous physicochemical properties of surfaces and the filling of the gap between them with a conductive liquid with nonlinear anisotropic properties makes it possible to create a fundamentally new method for thermoelectric energy conversion.
It is advisable to ensure the heterogeneity of the electrode surfaces due to the different energy of the molecular interaction of the contact surfaces of the electrodes with an anisotropic conducting liquid. Moreover, the higher the efficiency of the method of thermoelectric energy conversion, the higher the difference in the binding energy between the contact surfaces of the electrodes and the anisotropic conducting liquid.
It is advantageous to derive a difference in the molecular interaction energy of the contact surfaces of the electrodes with an anisotropic conducting liquid due to varying degrees of roughness of their surface, or by chemical etching of the contact surfaces of the electrodes, or by mechanical rubbing of contact surfaces of the electrodes in different directions.
It is effective to use as an anisotropic conductive liquid a composition based on liquid crystals and a solvent that increases the electrical conductivity of an anisotropic liquid due to the appearance of free radicals.
It is beneficial to use as a liquid crystal a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) to increase the efficiency of energy conversion.
The claimed method of thermoelectric energy conversion has no analogs among the methods of direct energy conversion known to date in the electric power industry, which allows to conclude that it satisfies the criterion of "inventive level".
 |
 |
In Fig. 1 shows the model of the device implementing the claimed method of thermoelectric energy conversion, and FIG. 2 shows the voltage dependence between the electrodes per 1 degree electrode temperature difference, depending on the temperature of the anisotropic liquid (mean temperature between the electrodes).
The model of the device (Figure 1) includes an electrode 1 (consisting of a dielectric substrate 3 with a conductive layer 2) and an electrode 4 (and consisting of a dielectric substrate 3 with a conductive layer 2), between which an anisotropic liquid 5 is placed. The electrodes 1 and 4 are connected between By itself through a load resistor 6, the voltage of which is controlled by a voltmeter 7. On the side of the electrode 1, a flow of thermal energy was supplied, and a heat flux from the side of the electrode 4 was diverted. FIG. 2 is a graph of the voltage dependence of the voltage between electrodes per 1 degree of temperature, depending on the average temperature of the anisotropic liquid, and lines 9 indicate a corridor of fluctuations.
The claimed method is carried out as follows. The electrode 1 is heated to a temperature T1, and the electrode 4 is maintained at a temperature T2. Under the action of a temperature gradient proportional to T1-T2, an anisotropic conducting liquid begins to interact differently with electrodes 1 and 4, which is due to the different energy of the molecular interaction of the contact surfaces of the electrodes with an anisotropic conductive liquid. The electrodes are made of the same material but have different physicochemical properties with respect to the liquid conducting medium 5. Different binding energies of the working medium molecules create a free energy gradient inside the volume of the conducting liquid 5, which leads to different amplitude fluctuations in the orientation Linear molecules along the axis perpendicular to the plane of the electrodes. If there are free charge carriers in the medium (electrons and / or free radicals that split from NLC molecules under the action of a solvent), while carriers of the same sign are practically immobile, while others can easily move inside the volume, then their separation occurs, which can be interpreted, As an analog of the contact potential difference. In contrast to the usual contact potential difference between two dissimilar metals, in our case the effect is observed in a chemically homogeneous substance. In the presence of a temperature gradient and the possibility of interaction of charge carriers with electrons of electrodes 1 and 4, an electric current arises and a potential difference is detected between electrodes 1 and 4 by the device 7, and current flows through the load resistor 6. According to graph 8, the maximum voltage value per degree of temperature difference (T1-T2) in the course of the experiment reached 3.6 V at an average temperature between electrodes of 95 ° C. Higher temperature values were not raised because of the possibility of destruction of the selected NLC type. At temperatures close to the limiting, the efficiency of the claimed method reached 50% or more.
The detected effect of the appearance of a potential difference between the electrodes was tested in various embodiments of the thermal energy converter mockup.
Option 1
Glass substrates were used as electrode substrates, on which a layer of indium oxide (In 2 O 3 ) was deposited by sputtering. The deposition process was carried out at different angles to the surface to be sprayed, which made it possible to create various surface roughness. An NLC-based composition (methoxybenzylidene) was used as the anisotropic conductive liquid. The design efficiency was at least 53% at a temperature of 95 ° C.
Option 2
Glass substrates were used as the electrode substrates, on which a layer consisting of a mixture of tin oxide (SnO) and indium oxide (In 2 O 3 ) was deposited by sputtering. After spraying the surface of the electrodes were subjected to chemical etching, which created the conditions for the appearance of different binding energies of the molecules of the anisotropic conducting liquid with the conductive material of the electrodes. An NLC-based composition (octyl-cyano-biphenyl) was used as an anisotropic conductive liquid. The efficiency of the model was not less than 57% at a temperature of 95 ° C.
Option 3
Quartz plates were used as electrode substrates, on which a layer of tin oxide (SnO) was deposited by sputtering. After spraying, the surfaces of the electrodes were subjected to mechanical rubbing in various directions (circular rotation and rectilinear motion), which created the conditions for the appearance of different binding energies of the molecules of the anisotropic conducting liquid with the conducting material of the electrodes. An NLC-based composition (pentyl-cyano-biphenyl) was used as an anisotropic conductive liquid. The design efficiency was not less than 48% at a temperature of 95 ° C.
Thus, the claimed method makes it possible to create a fundamentally new class of thermoelectric converters with high efficiency and available for wide application.
CLAIM
A method of thermoelectric energy conversion comprising the placement of two dissimilar elements at different temperatures, characterized in that the elements are made in the form of electrodes with heterogeneous physicochemical properties of surfaces that are disposed with each other with a gap, the gap being filled with a conductive liquid with nonlinear anisotropic properties .
2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the heterogeneity in the physicochemical properties of the contact surfaces of the electrodes is achieved due to the different energy of the molecular interaction with the anisotropic conducting liquid.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein the difference in the energy of the molecular interaction of the contact surfaces of the electrodes with the anisotropic conducting liquid is achieved due to varying degrees of surface roughness, either by chemical etching, or by mechanical rubbing of the surfaces in various directions.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein an anisotropic conductive liquid is a composition based on a solution of liquid crystals in a solvent.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein the liquid crystal is a nematic liquid crystal.
print version
Published on February 13, 2007
Comments
When commenting on, remember that the content and tone of your message can hurt the feelings of real people, show respect and tolerance to your interlocutors even if you do not share their opinion, your behavior in the conditions of freedom of expression and anonymity provided by the Internet, changes Not only virtual, but also the real world. All comments are hidden from the index, spam is controlled.