Patent Application
20230361696
The present invention is a kinetic energy harvest and electrical energy storage feedback cell that combines the 2-dimensional (2D) superconductor behaviour induced by a ferroelectric-metal with a quantum Hall Effect spontaneously induced around the surface and interfaces with the two electrodes. Independently, to align the chemical potentials between the ferroelectric and the electrodes, Electrical Double Layer Capacitors (EDLCs) are formed at the interfaces. The ferroelectric-metal polarization and the alignment of the charges at the EDLCs are not screened by the 2D fast electron current and the ferroelectric-metal remains polarized. When the cell is set to discharge with a load and the chemical potential of the positive electrode becomes equal to the ferroelectric's, the electrons accumulated at the ferroelectric interface are conducted through the surface to the electrical negative capacitance Double Layer Capacitor (EDL-C′) at the interface with the negative electrode. From the EDL-C′ at the interface with the negative electrode, the electrons tunnel to the negative electrode resulting in the increase of its chemical potential, and consequently of the potential difference across the cell, while discharging with a load. This process is not observed in other discharges of energy storage cells, such as traditional batteries, and configures a harvesting process in a storage cell at a constant temperature. This process repeats as the electrons are discharged through the external circuit and recovered on the positive electrode, tunnelling to the surface of the ferroelectric. This feedback circuit involving the conduction of electrons through the interior and exterior of the cell, as in two Poincaré maps, shapes a harvesting and storage cell supported by the kinetic energy of ions and dipoles in the ferroelectric, and its surface fast conducting electrons. It is not dependent on a gradient or on a temperature fluctuation. It works at constant temperature, but it can be enhanced by a temperature gradient or fluctuation.
A Superconductor is a material capable of showing a zero electrical resistance; electrical superconductivity it is, therefore, a property related with electrons. Bulk superconductors are also able to maintain a current with no applied voltage, a property exploited in superconducting electromagnets such as those found in MRI machines. Experiments have demonstrated that currents in superconducting coils can persist for years without any degradation. Several materials have been reported to show bulk superconductivity, like Be, Ti, Zr, Zn, Sn, at low temperatures and the high-temperature cuprate superconductors, like HgBa2Ca2Cu3Ox or the iron based FeSe. The highest temperature superconductor is H2S but it also requires high pressure.
A Superconductor enables, therefore, the transmission of electrical power without any loss and exhibits no heat dissipation (no Joule effect). The development of novel architectures for harvesting and subsequently storing energy brings important benefits to humankind.
A Ferroelectric material is a material that polarizes spontaneously and whose polarization can be reversed by the application of an external electric field. All Ferroelectrics are Pyroelectrics, their natural electrical polarization is reversible.
Ferroelectrics with extremely high dielectric constant like Li3-2yMyClO (M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba), Li3-3yAyClO (M=B, Al), Na3-2yMyClO (M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba), Na3-3yAyClO (M=B, Al), K3-2yMyClO (M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba), K3-3yAyClO (M=B, Al) or antiperovskites (crystalline materials) like Li3-2y-zMyHzClO (M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba), Li3-3y-zAyHzClO (M=B, Al), Na3-2y-zMyHzClO (M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba), Na3-3y-zAyHzClO (M=B, Al), K3-2y-zMyHzClO (M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba), K3-3y-zAyHzClO (M=B, Al), a mixture of thereof or a mixture of thereof with Li2S, Na2S, K2S, Li2O, Na2O, K2O, SiO2, Al2O3, or H2S or a mixture of thereof with a polymer forming a composite, can become a surface (2D) superconductor. This condition does not require being a bulk superconductor as defined above in the first paragraph of the background.
A Thermoelectric cell or Generator (TEG) is constituted by a heat source and a heat sink separated by the thermoelectric material (TE) and a collector. Usually, the cell is constituted by two different TEs (an n-semiconductor and a p-semiconductor) to allow electrons (in n-semiconductor) and holes (in p-semiconductor) to be conducted from the hot source to the hot sink. The working principle of TEGs depends on a temperature difference and a gradient, J=−σS∇T, where J is the current density, tithe electrical conductivity, S=ΔV/ΔT the Seebeck coefficient, ΔV the potential difference across the material when a temperature difference ΔT is applied, and ∇T the temperature gradient. Thermoelectric materials have demonstrated their ability to directly convert thermal into electrical energy via the Seebeck effect.
The Thermoelectric performance (for either power generation or as a heat pump in which electricity can drive a Peltier cooler) depends on the efficiency of the Thermoelectric material for transforming heat into electricity. The efficiency of a Thermoelectric material depends primarily on the Thermoelectric materials figure-of-merit, known as zT, zT=S2σT/κ, where κ is the thermal conductivity. It is not straightforward to find a n- and p-semiconductor pair that can be used near room temperature. The latter difficulty is identified as one of the problems in classic TEs and the others are related to obtaining a high electrical conductivity (σ), or low resistivity (ρ), while obtaining a high thermal conductivity (κ). Finally, the requirements partially translate into finding a semiconductor TE with a charge carrier concentration that is about 1020 cm−3. This ‘ideal’ concentration of charge carriers is found associated with TE topological phenomena and, independently, with 2D superconductivity in polar-metals such as certain ferroelectrics.
In the 1950s, the milestone concepts of narrow bandgap semiconductors and solid solutions led to the discovery of (Bi,Sb)2(Te,Se)3 and Bi1-xSbx TE systems, which have become the most successful TE materials for power generation and refrigeration near and below room temperature. The latest major advance started in the 1990s, and its development continues to date based on the novel ideas of low-dimensionality (2D), ‘phonon-glass electron-crystal’ paradigm electronic structure engineering, hierarchical phonon scattering, and point defect engineering.
Pyroelectricity is a phenomenon in which temperature fluctuations applied to a pyroelectric material induce a change in polarization, which further causes the separation of bound charges. The term “temperature fluctuation” refers to the dynamic condition where temperature varies with time (e.g. oscillations). As such, pyroelectricity can result in an alternating current (AC). The pyroelectric phenomena depend, therefore, on a dynamic variation of the temperature expressed by, I=A(dPs/dT)(dT/dt), where I is the harvested current, A is the surface area, Ps is the spontaneous polarization, and T is the temperature.
Surface 2D superconductivity is established in polar materials such as ferroelectric semiconductors. It is observed, in particular, in polar metal/insulator heterojunctions typically at low-temperatures (<50 K) where the polar material is a superconductor with dielectric constant εr>103, converting the latter into ferroelectric “metals” with surface superconductivity.
Negative capacitance is related with topological (2D) phenomena and associated with processes conducing to local 2D superconductivity which subsequently, fed by excitations, may result in electron tunnelling.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell using a ferroelectric-induced 2D superconductor that performs from below to above room temperatures.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell in which the electrical potential difference available increases during discharge of the cell with a load.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell in which the charge may be obtained just by the relaxation of the cell.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell in which the thermoelectric phenomena can potentiate the output power.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell in which the pyroelectric phenomena can potentiate the output power.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell that can harvest kinetic energy.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell that can harvest heat.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell that can store electrostatic and electrochemical energy.
The present invention is directed to a feedback cell in which electrons are feedback into the circuit in one electrode and conducted through the surface of the ferroelectric electrolyte, tunnelling back to the other electrode increasing the chemical potential, and the electrical potential difference across the cell where the electrical potential difference is spontaneously expected to decrease.
The present invention discloses a feedback cell comprising a high dielectric constant ferroelectric 2D superconductor or ferroelectric-metal placed between two similar or dissimilar materials wherein the electrical potential difference of the cell increases during discharge with a load from below to above room temperatures.
Furthermore, the invention reveals the feedback cell in which the ferroelectric comprises the materials, R3-2yMyCl1-xHa1-xO1-zAz with (R=Li, Na, K; M=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba; Hal=F, Br, I; A=S, Se) and 0≤y≤0.5, 0≤x≤1, and 0≤z≤1, R3-3yMyCl1-xHa1-xO1-zAz with (R=Li, Na, K; M=B, Al; Hal=F, Br, I; A=S, Se) and 0≤y≤0.5, 0≤x≤1, and 0≤z≤1, R3-2y-zM′yHzCl1-xHalxO1-dAd (R=Li, Na, K; M′=Be, Ca, Mg, Sr, and Ba; Hal=F, Br, I; A=S, Se) and 0≤y≤0.5, 0≤z≤2, 0≤x≤1, and 0≤d≤1, R3-3y-zM′yHzCl1-xHalxO1-dAd with 0≤y≤0.5, 0≤z≤2, 0≤x≤1, and 0≤d≤1, a mixture of thereof or a mixture of thereof with Li2S, Na2S, SiO2, Li2O, Na2O, or H2S or a mixture thereof with a polymer, a plasticizer, or a glue.
Additionally, the ferroelectric-metal of the feedback cell can be in contact with one or two insulator layers, such as air or vacuum.
Moreover, the feedback cell containing a ferroelectric-metal, comprising two interfaces with two similar or dissimilar conductors.
The present invention also discloses the feedback cell in which ferroelectric-metal, comprising two interfaces with two similar or dissimilar insulators.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric can be the Na-based Na2.99Ba0.005ClO and the conductors are Cu.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is the Na-based Na2.99Ba0.005ClO and the conductors are Zn and Cu.
Additionally, the feedback cell where the ferroelectric is the Na-based Na2.99Ba0.005ClO and the conductors are Zn and C foam, sponge, wires, nanotubes, graphene, graphite, carbon black or any other allotrope or carbon structure, with or without impurities.
Moreover, the feedback cell where the ferroelectric is the Li-based (1-x)Li2.99Ba0.005ClO+xLi3-2y-zMyHzClO, with 0≤x≤1, one conductor is Li and the other is a mixture of MnO2 with carbon black and a binder.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is the Na-based (1-x)Na2.99Ba0.005ClO+xNa3-2y-zMyHzClO, with 0≤x≤1 and 0≤z≤2, one conductor is Na and the other is a mixture of Na3V2(PO4)3 with carbon black and a binder.
The feedback cell can comprise two interfaces with two similar or dissimilar semiconductors or a conductor and a semiconductor.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is the Li-based Li2.99Ba0.005ClO+Li2S, the conductor is Al and the semiconductor Si.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is the Li-based Li2.99Ba0.005ClO+Li3-2y-zMyHzClO, with 0≤y≤1 and 0≤z≤2, the conductor is Li and the semiconductor MnO2 or a mixture of sulfur and carbon.
The feedback cell can comprise two interfaces one a semiconductor or a conductor, and the other an insulator with a conductor contact or electron collector.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is the Na-based, K-based, or Li-based and the conductors are Zn or Cu, Li, Na, a Li alloy or composite, a Na alloy or composite, a K alloy or a composite. The ferroelectric surface area is in contact with an insulator such as air, vacuum, polymer, plasticizer, insulating tape, glue, or binder.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is Li-based, Li2.99Ba0.005ClO or a Li2.99Ba0.005ClO+Li3-2y-zMyHzClO mixture or a composite, and the conductor is Li or a Li alloy such as the solid solution of Mg in lithium. The ferroelectric surface area is in contact with an insulator such as air, vacuum, polymer, plasticizer, ionic liquid, insulating tape, glue, or binder.
The feedback cell can comprise two concentric wire conductors separated by a ferroelectric.
The feedback cell can comprise at least one interface between a ferroelectric and an insulator.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the insulator is SiO2, a polymer, a plasticizer such as succinonitrile, air.
The feedback cell can comprise at least one interface between a ferroelectric and a superconductor.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the superconductor is ZnO.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is Li, K, or Na-based and the superconductors are both Al or Ti or Sn, Li and Al, or Li and Ti or Sn.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is Li, K, or Na-based and the superconductors are HgBa2Ca2Cu3Ox FeSe, or H2S.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is a composite such as a ferroelectric polymer-glue mixture or a ferroelectric ionic liquid mixture.
The feedback cell can present a further configuration in that the ferroelectric is CaCuTiO3 or a composite or a mixture of the ferroelectric materials listed above.
The feedback cell can perform at constant temperature.
The feedback cell can perform under a gradient temperature, such as in a thermoelectric generator, from −15 to 250° C.
The feedback cell can perform under a variable temperature, a temperature fluctuation, such as a pyroelectric generator, from −15 to 250° C.
Use of the feedback cells described above as an energy harvester.
Use of the feedback cells described above as an energy harvester and energy storage device.
Use of the feedback cells described above as a part of a transistor, a computer, a photovoltaic cell or panel, a wind turbine, a vehicle, a ship, a satellite, an airplane, a remote access circuit, a building, a smart grid, electric power transmission, transformers, power storage devices, or electric motors.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims, and accompanying drawings wherein.
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example below and in
In the description of the present invention, the invention will be discussed in a laboratory environment; however, this invention can be utilized for any type of applications requiring the devices 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90.
The ferroelectric material polarizes spontaneously below the Curie temperature (ferroelectric-paraelectric phase transition), and therefore, it does not depend on a temperature fluctuation or a temperature gradient to polarize giving rise to a potential difference across its ends. The potential difference ΔV=f(P) where f(P) is a non-linear function of the polarization P in which there is an indirect dependence on the temperature at the parameter level related to the dielectric constant or relative real permittivity. The ferroelectric has the ability to switch the direction and magnitude of the spontaneous polarization by reversing the applied coercive electric field, which makes it a good candidate to be used in an energy storage device as a dielectric and/or electrolyte. A ferroelectric is also piezoelectric (polarizes in response to applied mechanical stress), and a Pyroelectric. Materials that exhibit high pyroelectric coefficients are typically ferroelectric.
A key step in the superconductor phenomena is the pairing between electrons or the formation of Cooper pairs. Despite the strong Coulomb repulsion in free space, at low energy, electrons experience an effective attraction in the presence of a lattice. Thus, superconductivity essentially relies on a mechanism that simultaneously reduces the Coulomb repulsion and generates a strong attractive interaction. In simple (elemental) metals, such an attraction originates from the interchange of longitudinal phonons, which couple to the electronic density. To allow this attraction to overcome the Coulomb repulsion, however, the phonons must be much slower than the electronic motion. In terms of energy scales, this requirement implies that the Fermi energy is much larger than the Debye energy. In the intermediate frequency regime, between these two scales, the Coulomb repulsion is logarithmically suppressed, while the phonon interaction is unaffected. As a result, the net interaction between electrons may become attractive below the Debye energy.
There are two parameters that will affect 2D superconductivity. The parameters include temperature, and current density. For a cooperative motion of electrons, the control of this motion via the coalescence and alignment of the dipoles constituting the ferroelectric material may lead to the achievement of room temperature 2D superconductivity, especially if charged matter is inhomogeneous. Presently, it is believed that the mechanism of superconductivity can be induced either by bipolarons or Cooper pairing.
A bipolaron can be defined, but without limitation, as a bosonic quasiparticle consisting of two polarons.
A polaron is a fermionic quasiparticle used in condensed matter physics to understand the interactions between electrons and atoms in a solid material.
The polaron concept was firstly introduced by Landau to describe an electron moving in a dielectric crystal where the atoms move from their equilibrium positions to effectively screen the charge of an electron, known as a phonon cloud. This lowers electron mobility and increases the electron's effective mass.
A Cooper pair or BCS pair is a pair of electrons bound together at low temperatures. An arbitrarily small attraction between electrons in a metal can cause a paired state of electrons to have a lower energy than the Fermi energy, which implies that the pair is bound. In conventional (BCS) superconductors, this attraction is due to the electron-phonon interactions. The important understanding is that independent of physical mechanism, the key to observed superconductivity is the strong electron-lattice (phonon) coupling. Strong electron-lattice interactions can be obtained from the formation of an EDLC and an EDL-C′ where the electrons are restrained by two positively charged layers of A+ cations or positively charged dipoles, providing justification for a ferroelectric-induced 2D superconductivity enablement.
Control of the electronic motion via coalescence and alignment of the dipoles, constituting a ferroelectric material, may also lead to the formation of pairs of electrons, or better bipolarons, contributing to the achievement of room temperature superconductivity, namely 2D-superconductivity.
A requirement for superconductivity, namely the enablement of macroscopic quantum coherence is best described by the conventional BCS (Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer) theory. As the current flows, for example, along the surface of ferroelectric 200, positive ions or dipoles aligned at the interface of the ferroelectric 200, forming the EDL-C′, will create an attractive force between electrons which normally repel one another, due to Coulombic repulsion. Thus, electron pairs, named Cooper pairs, are formed, which subsequently condense into a single quantum mechanical state, represented by a unique wave function. This is equivalent with macroscopic quantum coherence and can be further exemplified by the creation of the ‘supercurrent’ in the ‘gap’ material of a heterojunction like 310/200 in 50, 60, and 90, 500/200 in 70, 600/200 in 80. In the present invention, under room or higher temperature conditions, the thermal agitations (fluctuations)-induced lattice vibrations (kinetic energy) will couple with the coalescent dipoles, dipoles or ions vibrations allowing the dipoles to align even further, reducing the internal resistance to the movement of ions and/or dipoles and increasing the dielectric constant to generate a virtual ‘soup’ of fluctuations, a highly non-linear, far-from-equilibrium environment at the interface of the conductor 310 and ferroelectric 200, of semiconductor 500 and ferroelectric 200, or of superconductor 600 and ferroelectric 200.
The complex interactions between a physical system and its surroundings (environment), disrupt the quantum mechanical nature of a system and render it classical under ordinary observation. This process is known as decoherence. However, it is argued that decoherence we can be retarded (delayed) (and possibly even suppressed when the physical system is decoupled from the environment) by accelerated spin and/or accelerated vibration of electrically charged matter under rapid acceleration transients. This may be the very condition to achieve a state of macroscopic quantum coherence, the idea being that the system is not let to achieve thermodynamic equilibrium, by constantly delaying the onset of relaxation to equilibrium (hence the production of maximal entropy is delayed). The system, then, may “violently” react by generating “anomalous” emergent phenomena, such as room temperature superconductivity. If for example one of the preferred embodiments like 10 is connected to a resistor, an LED, or a diode, the thermodynamic equilibrium is retarded since a current is continuously circulating in the external circuit. At 40° C., the oscillation of electrically charged matter is observed in a ferroelectric-induced 2D superconductor feedback cell 10 to 70 and 90. At room temperature, a supercurrent can be induced during several years as experienced by us during the last five years in a feedback cell such as the embodiments 10 to 70.
The Prigogine effect as discussed in the paper, “The high energy electromagnetic field generator” published in Int. J. Space Science and Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 4, 2015, pp. 312-317, explains that under three conditions, a chaotic system (the aforementioned ‘soup’ of fluctuations) can self-organize into an orderly state, equivalent to the state of macroscopic quantum coherence. These conditions are the existence of a highly non-linear medium (as in this case a ferroelectric material), an abrupt departure far-from-thermodynamic equilibrium, and an energy flux (caused by spontaneous alignment of the dipoles and ionic conduction due to the need to align the Fermi levels of conductor 310, semiconductor 500, or superconductor 600 with conductor 320, semiconductor 500, or superconductor 610, and the ferroelectric 200 via the external circuit) to maintain the process of self-organization (order from chaos). This shows that the present invention has macroscopic quantum coherence as observed in
It is possible that the key to superconductivity is the enablement of local macroscopic quantum coherence, namely the ability of a macroscopic object to act as if quantum mechanical in nature exhibiting such phenomena as superposition, entanglement, or tunnelling. In summary, one can argue that the synthesis of two physical mechanisms, namely the Cooper effect (or bipolaron formation), and the Prigogine effect leads directly to the possibility of room to high temperature 2D superconductivity, at least in the preferred embodiments. Therefore, the supercurrent may be generated along the interface (boundary) between the conductor 310, semiconductor 500, or superconductor 600 and a ferroelectric 200.
The pyroelectric effect offers another interesting solid-state approach for harvesting ambient thermal energy to power distributed networks of sensors and actuators that are remotely located or otherwise difficult to access. There have been, however, few device-level demonstrations due to challenges in converting spatial temperature gradients into temperature oscillations necessary for pyroelectric energy harvesting.
The decoupling of phonon and electron transport is essential in Thermoelectric cells; For example, in relaxor ferroelectrics, nano-polar regions associated with intrinsic localized phonon modes provide glass-like phonon characteristics due to the large levels of phonon scattering which is highly welcome for achieving the binomial feature ‘electron-crystal phonon-glass’ for an “ideal” TE with a high figure of merit as described above in the background section.
An important inference is that the “best” Thermoelectric requires high electronic carrier concentrations, ˜1018 to ˜1021 cm−3, i.e. 1020 cm−3, associated with high electrical conductivity. These are similar conditions to those necessary for a feedback cell to work at constant temperature. Therefore, enabling the superimposition of both the feedback and TE phenomena in an embodiment 40.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 116750 | Sep 2020 | PT | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2021/058551 | 9/20/2021 | WO |
