Thermal Conversion and Storage in One Solid-State Device

Waste heat makes up a very large fraction of the energy produced today. The process chain of energy conversion of chemical energy into power is subject to up to 72% loss. Recovering this waste heat will be crucial for enhancing the efficiency of processes.

Today approaches such as thermoelectric energy conversion are receiving interest due to their ability to turn waste energy back into useful electrical energy.

However, the wider adoption of this technology is being held back due to the low efficiency (< 5-8%) of current thermoelectric devices, the need for a temperature gradient, and the scarcity of state-of-the-art materials. Recently, a new device, the 'thermal battery', was proposed. Until now, the thermal battery concept has been explored using liquid electrolytes.

However, liquid electrolytes severely restrict the operation temperature range to T