Archive for category Thermoelectric

New Carbon Nanotube-Based Thermoelectric Material Could Be a Game Changer

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on February 24, 2012

A new thermoelectric material has been invented at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at wake Forest University. It’s been called Power Felt, and its creators hope that one day it will revolutionize the way we power small appliances and devices like cell phones by using temperature differences. Power Felt is made from carbon nanotubes [...]

MIT Researchers Invent Solar Cells That Transform Heat Into Electricity

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power, Thermoelectric on July 28, 2011

If you thought photovoltaics can only get energy from the Sun, then you were wrong. An MIT team of researchers have invented a device that produces electricity from heat. The process uses the photovoltaic effect as the middleman and is three times more efficient than the most efficient lithium ion batteries on market today.

New Multiferroic Alloy Magnetizes When Heated, Transforms Waste Heat Into Electricity

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on June 27, 2011

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota has discovered a new alloy that can transform heat into electricity. The approach is new and uses a coil to transform the magnetic field generated by the alloy.

Thermoelectric Phone Charger Provides Electricity From Camp Fire

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Green Electronics, Thermoelectric on June 15, 2011

Hatsuden-Nabe is the name of a device that can charge up your cellphone by using wasted heat. It’s available in Japan since yesterday and it surely attracts a lot of hikers and adventurers, who think this could save their lonesome journeys.

BMW, Ford, GM to Test Thermoelectric Devices on Real Cars This Summer

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on May 25, 2011

Thermoelectric materials are used to convert heat into electricity. These devices have applicability in all kinds of industries and machinery, ranging from cars to coal-fired power plants. The world’s greatest automobile manufacturers, BMW, Ford and GM have committed themselves to equip test cars with prototype thermoelectric devices by the end of this summer and see how they’ll behave.

New Pyroelectric Device Transforms Heat into Electricity With 30% Efficiency

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Green Electronics, Thermoelectric on May 17, 2011

Thermoelectric devices transform waste heat into electricity and can one day provide increased efficiency for everything from small gadgets to power plants. Scott Hunter, working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) hopes his new heat-recovering invention will scavenge lost heat with an efficiency of up to 30 percent.

Solar Thermoelectric Device Harnesses Sun's Heat, Transforms Directly Into Electricity

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power, Thermoelectric on May 3, 2011

A new material that could one day change the efficiency of thermal solar panels has been invented by MIT and Boston College researchers, with collaborators from GMZ Energy. The thermoelectric device is at least eight times more efficient than what’s currently available in labs.

Ultrasound Technology Used to Fabricate Future's Best Thermoelectric Materials

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on February 4, 2011

By using a technology that is normally suited to cleaning jewelery, with common solvents, ultrasounds, and 1 milligram of layered material (such as graphite), Dr. Valeria Nicolosi, the collaborator from the University of Oxford says they can make “billions and billions of one-atom-thick nanosheets can be made at the same time from a wide variety of exotic layered materials.”

Lead Telluride-Based Thermoelectric Device Breaks Efficiency Record Barrier

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on January 22, 2011

Just like a savior knight, energy recovery comes to help the industries that pollute most and that waste large quantities of heat. A 14% efficiency has been reported for a newly-invented thermoelectric nanomaterial by the researchers of Northwestern University in Illinois. So far, efficiency values in this field didn’t exceed 10%.

Newly Discovered Nanoscale Structural Displacements Lead the Way to More Efficient Thermoelectrics

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on December 17, 2010

A team of scientists from important US research institutes such as the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Columbia University, Argonne National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Northwestern University and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, while studying lead chalcogenides (lead paired with tellurium, selenium or sulfur), have discovered how these behave at an atomic scale and how they could offer great thermoelectric properties.

Both Light And Heat Harvested by New Device from Fujitsu

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power, Thermoelectric on December 10, 2010

Solar panels harvest light and thermoelectric devices harvest the heat – but recently, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd have developed a blend of both: a power-generating device that can convert both light and temperature difference into an electric current.

Louisiana Professor Uses Piezoelectric Material and Carbon Nanotubes to Recover Lost Heat

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Piezoelectric, Thermoelectric on October 11, 2010

A Louisiana Tech University professor, dr. Long Que, has designed and prototyped a composite material that converts heat into electricity by using simple physical mechanisms found in piezoelectric materials and carbon nanotubes.

Spin-Seebeck Effect Causing New Magnetic Semiconductor To Become Energy Harvester

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Power Saving, Thermoelectric on September 29, 2010

A gallium manganese arsenide semiconductor may be the material to revolutionize how electronic circuits power and recycle their waste heat, through a research of Ohio State University scientists, led by Joseph Heremans and Roberto Myers, both from OSU.

Ukrainian & American Team Makes Ferroelectric Nanowires Harvest Heat Differences

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on September 29, 2010

A team of Ukranian and American scientists have discovered that by using structures called ferroelectric nanowires, they can generate electricity from a temperature difference. This concept is now new, but rather uses different approaches and materials. It can harvest energy by using the temperature difference between materials and/or ambients.

Silicon Nanomesh Designed by Caltech Serves As Almost-Perfect Heat Insulator

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Thermoelectric on September 24, 2010

All of the electronics devices you use, all the wires, the cars, basically anything using energy heats up and loses part of its useful energy as heat – wasted heat, through well-cooled radiators. Thermoelectric devices have recently suffered technological advances and are now more able to harness the lost heat energy and transform it into electricity. A new material made out of silicon can serve as the ultimate heat insulator and still conduct electricity.

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