Thermal potential of ion-exchange membranes and its application to thermoelectric power generation

Abstract The low efficiency and high price of thermoelectric semiconductors has generated interest in unconventional forms of thermoelectric materials. In this article, ionic thermoelectricity has been studied with commercial ion-exchange membranes for different aqueous 1:1 electrolytes. The theory of thermal membrane potential has been derived taking into account the ionic heats of transport, the non-isothermal Donnan potentials, the temperature polarization, and the thermally-induced concentration polarization of the electrolyte. Also the generated thermoelectric power has been experimentally studied. The experiments show good agreement with the theory, and suggest ways for systematic improvement of the system performance.