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Performance optimization of thermionic refrigerators based on van der Waals heterostructures

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Abstract

In this paper, an irreversible thermionic refrigerator model based on van der Waals heterostructure with various irreversibilities is established by utilizing combination of non-equilibrium thermodynamics and finite time thermodynamics. The basic performance characteristics of the refrigerator are obtained. The effects of key factors, such as bias voltages, Schottky barrier heights and heat leakages, on the performance are studied. Results show that cooling rates and coefficients of performances (COPs) can attain the double maximum with proper modulation of barrier heights and bias voltages. Increasing cross-plane thermal resistance as well as decreasing electrode-reservoir thermal resistance and reservoir-reservoir thermal resistance can enhance the performance of the device. The optimal performance region is the interval between the maximum cooling rate point and the maximum COP point. By modulating the bias voltage, the working state of the device can fall into the optimal performance region. The optimal performance of the refrigerator when using single layer graphene and a few layers graphene as electrode material is also compared.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Thermal Science and Power Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, China

    SuSu Qiu, LinGen Chen & YanLin Ge

  2. School of Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan, 430205, China

    SuSu Qiu, LinGen Chen & YanLin Ge

  3. College of Power Engineering, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan, 430033, China

    SuSu Qiu & ZeMin Ding

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  1. SuSu Qiu
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  2. ZeMin Ding
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Correspondence to LinGen Chen.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51779262, 51576207, 51306206) and the Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2017CFB498). The authors wish to thank the reviewers for their careful, unbiased and constructive suggestions, which led to this revised manuscript. The authors also wish to thank Dr. Feng Chao for his timely discussion on the energy dispersion of graphene.

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Qiu, S., Ding, Z., Chen, L. et al. Performance optimization of thermionic refrigerators based on van der Waals heterostructures. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 64, 1007–1016 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-020-1749-9

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