I should add:
This has nothing to do with normal cathode emission - since the medium
is far too resistive. The H2 inside of a Stirling would be under modest
pressure (above atmospheric). Here is a simple intro to the Lamina
(thermoacoustic) Stirling:
http://www.stirlingengines.org.uk/thermo/lamina.html
here is an crude video of one being operated by a flame:
http://www.zippyvideos.com/7290782266524166/mpg_0716/
The idea would be to use the concept (Energy conversion via Electron
affinity) to provide a solar Stirling engine converter of higher
efficiency, and less cost than solar cells.
A mirror would concentrate and reflect sunlight to the hot side, but as
suggested below, one would attempt to add additional emf, in the form of
ion flux, directly to the heat flow (which is normally neutral) in order
to boost the efficiency of the device.
Jones
Wiki has a pretty good article on electron affinity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_affinity
Here is the thought (I have not checked to see if this
is a "re-invention" of someone else's idea) - take two
electrodes and a working medium, and hydrogen is the
only working medium that fits into this concept very
well (73 kj/mol)...
- such that one electrode has a much lower electron
affinity than does the H2 (zinc works well ~0) and the
other has a much higher (gold plated copper works here
~223). You need a source of energy to convert - like
focused sunlight onto the back side of the zinc. The
other electrode is finned and air-cooled. The zinc
emitter can be a Zn plated bimetal, so that there is
already a small thermoelectric effect.
Query: will a flow of hydrogen between the heat source
and a heat sink create an efficient flow of electrical
energy on the electrodes? This flow can be accentuated
by using a Stirling engine configuration, and
especially the so-called lamina or thermoacoustic
Stirling, where the hot and cold ends, respectively
use the metals optimized for electron affinity and so
have electrical leads. The current then adds to the
mechanical energy, giving higher efficiency.
Jones
