Energy Storage and Generation from Thermopower Waves

We have demonstrated through simulation and experiment that the nonlinear coupling between an exothermic chemical reaction in a fuel and a nanowire or nanotube with large axial heat conduction accelerates the thermal reaction wave along the nano-conduit. The thermal conduit rapidly transports energy to unreacted fuel regions, and the reaction wave induces a concomitant thermopower wave of high power density, producing electrical current in the same direction. At up to 14 W/g, this can be substantially larger than the power density offered by current micro-scale power sources (e.g. fuel cells, batteries) and even about seven times greater than that of commercial Li-ion batteries. MEMS devices and wireless sensor networks would benefit from such high power density sources to enable functions such as communications and acceleration hampered by present power sources.