Caltech Postdocs Launch – March 15, 2024
- Public Event
Dr. Kay Xia, CCE
Heat-Electricity Conversion using Supramolecular Host-Guest Chemistry
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Heat-Electricity Conversion using Supramolecular Host-Guest Chemistry
Because of the thermodynamic relationship ΔG = ΔH – TΔS, nonzero reaction entropy enables conversion between heat (T) and work (ΔG). Electrochemical entropy is the basis for thermally regenerative electrochemical cycles (TRECs), which utilize reversible electrochemical processes with large molar entropy change for thermogalvanic waste-heat harvesting and electrochemical cooling, among other potential applications. There are few existing ways to rationally tune reaction entropy, despite this property's great utility. An aqueous electrochemically controlled supramolecular host-guest system demonstrates a large and synthetically tunable redox entropy change, enabling rational optimization of the system's ΔS, and demonstrating a new strategy to overcome theoretical limits on ion solvation reorganization entropy.