On the time-dependent electrolyte Seebeck effect

Single-ion Soret coefficients \(\alpha_{i}\) characterize the tendency of ions in an electrolyte solution to move in a thermal gradient. When these coefficients differ between cations and anions, an electric field can be generated. For this so-called electrolyte Seebeck effect to occur, the different thermodiffusive fluxes need to be blocked by boundaries -- electrodes, for example. Local charge neutrality is then broken in the Debye-length vicinity of the electrodes. Confusingly, many authors point to these regions as the source of the thermoelectric field yet ignore them in derivations of the time-dependent Seebeck coefficient \(S(t)\), giving a false impression that the electrolyte Seebeck effect is purely a bulk phenomenon. Without enforcing local electroneutrality, we derive \(S(t)\) generated by a binary electrolyte with arbitrary ionic valencies subject to a time-dependent thermal gradient. Next, we experimentally measure \(S(t)\) for five acids, bases, and salts near titanium electrodes. For the steady state we find \(S\approx2~\mathrm{mV~K}^{-1}\) for many electrolytes, roughly one order of magnitude larger than predictions based on literature \(\alpha_{i}\). We fit our expression for \(S(t)\) to the experimental data, treating the \(\alpha_{i}\) as fit parameters, and also find larger-than-literature values, accordingly.