ELECTROCHEMICAL HEAT CONVERTER

摘要

The invention relates to the electrical engineering industry and is an electrochemical cell which can be used for the electrolysis of electrolytes and/or for producing electrical energy using heat from the surrounding environment. Any electrochemical cell is characterized by an electromotive force which is equal to the electrode potential difference. When an electrochemical cell functions as a current source, the electromotive force determines the amount of energy which can be transmitted to a load; and when an electrochemical cell functions as an electrolyzer, the electromotive force determines the amount of energy consumed by an external source. Such physical phenomena as the Donnan potential and the inner potential difference of type I conductors are thermodynamic equilibrium potentials arising as a result of heat diffusion of moving charge carriers and are not used as sources of additional electromotive force in known electrochemical cells. The invention is an electrochemical cell capable of using the Donnan potential and/or the inner potential difference of its component parts for converting heat from the surrounding environment into electrical and/or chemical energy.