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