Energy Transfer and Thermoelectricity in Molecular Junctions in Non-Equilibrated Solvents

Abstract

We consider a molecular junction immersed in a solvent where the electron transfer is dominated by Marcus-type steps. However, the successive nature of the charge transfer through the junction does not imply that the solvent reach thermal equilibrium throughout the transport. In our previous work \cite{kir2020} we have determined the nonequilibrium distribution of the solvent where its dynamics, expressed by a friction, is considered in two limiting regimes of fast and slow solvent relaxation. In dependence of the nonequilibrium solvent dynamics, we investigate now the electrical, thermal and thermoelectric properties of the molecular junction. We show that by suitable tuning the friction, we can reduce the heat dissipation into the solvent and enhance the heat transfer between the electrodes. Interestingly, we find that the Seebeck coefficient grows significantly by adapting the solvent friction in both regimes.

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Cited by in corpus (7)

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• Electron hopping heat transport in molecules
• Optimising finite-time quantum information engines using Pareto bounds
• Optimizing energy conversion with nonthermal resources in steady-state quantum devices
• Noise and Thermodynamic Uncertainty Relation in "Underwater" Molecular Junctions
• Heat current magnification in Classical and Quantum spin networks
• Potential barriers are nearly-ideal quantum thermoelectrics at finite power output