Journal
JOURNAL OF QUANTITATIVE SPECTROSCOPY & RADIATIVE TRANSFER
Volume 198, Issue -, Pages 59-67Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2017.04.033
Keywords
Near-field thermal radiation; Thermionic energy conversion; Renewable energy recycling
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [NSF CBET-1403072, ECCS-1611320]
- Directorate For Engineering
- Div Of Electrical, Commun & Cyber Sys [1611320] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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This article proposes a new energy harvesting concept that greatly enhances thermionic power generation with high efficiency by exploiting the near-field enhancement of thermal radiation. The proposed near field enhanced thermionic energy conversion (NETEC) system is uniquely configured with a low-bandgap semiconductor cathode separated from a thermal emitter with a subwavelength gap distance, such that a significant amount of electrons can be photoexcited by near-field thermal radiation to contribute to the enhancement of thermionic current density. We theoretically demonstrate that the NETEC system can generate electric power at a significantly lower temperature than the standard thermionic generator, and the energy conversion efficiency can exceed 40%. The obtained results reveal that near-field photoex-citation can enhance the thermionic power output by more than 10 times, making this hybrid system attractive for renewable energy recycling. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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