Thermo-Electrochemical Cells Based on Carbon Nanotube Electrodes by Electrophoretic Deposition

摘要

Drawbacks of low efficiency and high cost of the electrode materials have restricted the wide applications of the thermo-electrochemical cells (TECs). Due to high specific areas and electrical conductivities, the low cost multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are promising alternative electrode materials. In this work, the MWNT films of up to 16 cm² were synthesized on stainless steel substrates by the electrophoretic deposition (EPD) to make the thermo-electrochemical electrodes. MWNT electrodes based on TECs were characterized by cyclic voltammetry and the long-term stability tests with the potassium ferri/ferrocyanide electrolyte. The TECs reached the current density of 45.2 A m⁻² and the maximum power density of 0.82 W m⁻². The relative power conversion efficiency of the MWNT electrode is 50 % higher than that for the Pt electrode. Meanwhile, the TECs was operated continuously for 300 h without performance degradation. With the priorities of low cost and simple fabrication, EPD-based MWNT TECs may become commercially viable.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40820-016-0082-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.