Related papers: Optimising nanoporous supercapacitors for heat-to-…
The realization of microscopic heat engines has gained a surge of research interest in statistical physics, soft matter, and biological physics. A typical microscopic heat engine employs a colloidal particle trapped in a confining…
We investigate thermal rectification in nanoporous silicon using a semi-classical Monte Carlo (MC) simulation method. We consider geometrically asymmetric nanoporous structures, and investigate the combined effects of porosity, inter-pore…
In order to make a densely packed assembly of undoped semiconductor nanocrystals conductive, it is usually gated by a room temperature ionic liquid. The ionic liquid enters the pores of the super-crystal assembly under the influence of an…
Hot carrier solar cells allow potential efficiency close to the thermodynamical limit in ideal conditions. However, the feasability of such devices has not been clearly stated so far and only ideal cells were considered in previous studies.…
Optical heating of resonant nanostructures is one of the key issues in modern nanophotonics, being either harmful or desirable effect depending on the applications. Despite a linear regime of light-to-heat conversion is well-studied both…
An atomistic effective Hamiltonian technique is used to investigate the finite-temperature energy storage properties of a ferroelectric nanocomposite consisting of an array of BaTiO$_{3}$ nanowires embedded in a SrTiO$_{3}$ matrix, for…
We propose a solar thermal energy conversion system consisting of a solar absorber, a thermoradiative cell or negative illumination photodiode, and a photovoltaic cell. Because it is a heat engine, this system can also be paired with…
There is growing interest in heat pumps based on materials that show thermal changes when phase transitions are driven by changes of electric, magnetic or stress field. Importantly, regeneration permits sinks and loads to be thermally…
Cycling efficiency and rate capability of porous copper-coated, amorphous silicon thin-film negative electrodes are compared to equivalent silicon thin-film electrodes in lithium-ion batteries. The presence of a copper layer coated on the…
More than half of the waste heat rejected into the environment has temperatures lower than 100 $^\circ C$, which accounts for nearly 85 PWh/year worldwide. Efficiently harvesting low-grade heat could be a promising step toward carbon…
The conversion of heat into current can be obtained by a process with two stages. In the first one, the heat is used for distilling a solution and obtaining two flows with different concentrations. In the second stage, the two flows are…
The new energy system constructed by energy storage and photovoltaic power generation system can effectively solve the problem of transformer overload operation in some enterprises. It can not only reduce the cost of electricity, but also…
We propose a charge pump which converts solar energy into DC electricity. It is based on cyclic changes in the spontaneous electric polarization of a photoferroelectric material, which allows a transfer of charge from a low to a high…
Cyclical heat engines are a paradigm of classical thermodynamics, but are impractical for miniaturization because they rely on moving parts. A more recent concept is particle-exchange (PE) heat engines, which uses energy filtering to…
Photoinduced hyperthermia is a cancer therapy technique that induces death to cancerous cells via heat generated by plasmonic nanoparticles. While previous studies have shown that some nanoparticles can be effective at killing cancer cells…
Impregnation of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) into a porous medium is a promising way to stabilize their shape and improve thermal conductivity which are essential for thermal energy storage and thermal management of small-size…
A field theoretic variational approach is introduced to study ion penetration into water-filled cylindrical nanopores in equilibrium with a bulk reservoir. It is shown that (i) an ion located in a neutral pore undergoes two opposing…
Metal oxide nanocrystals are emerging as extremely versatile material for addressing many of the current challenging demands of energy-conversion technology. Being able to exploit their full potential is not only an advantage but also a…
Lithium-ion battery systems have been used in practical power systems for peak-shaving, demand response, and frequency regulation. However, a lithium-ion battery is degrading while cycling and would be scrapped when the capacity reduces to…
We investigate a heat- to charge-current converter consisting of a single-level quantum dot coupled to two ferromagnetic metals and one ferromagnetic insulator held at different temperatures. We demonstrate that this nano engine can act as…