Journal
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES
Volume 63, Issue 6, Pages 2231-2241Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/TED.2016.2556751
Keywords
Energy conversion efficiency; nanowires; space charge; thermionic energy conversion (TEC); work function
Funding
- Fundamental Research Grant Scheme within the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia [203.PMEKANIK.6071332]
- MyBrain15 Scholarship
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Thermionic energy converter (TEC) is a heat engine that generates electricity directly using heat as its source of energy and electron as its working fluid. Despite having a huge potential as an efficient direct energy conversion device, the progress in vacuum-based thermionic energy converter development has always been hindered by the space charge problem and the unavailability of materials with low work function. It is only recently that researchers have started to look back into this technology as recent advances in manufacturing technology techniques have made it possible to solve these problems, making TECs a viable option in replacing current energy production systems. The focus of this paper is to review the challenges of producing efficient and practical TECs, along with recent findings and developments in mitigating these challenges. Furthermore, this paper looked into potential applications of TECs, based on recent works and technologies, and found that, with certain improvements, it can be applied in many sectors.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available