(Phys.org)—The large amount of waste heat produced by power plants and automobile engines can be converted into electricity due to the thermoelectric effect, a physics effect that converts temperature differences into electrical ...
Thermoelectric materials, which can directly and reversibly convert heat to electrical energy, are used in a variety of applications, including cooling of electronic devices and waste heat energy conversion.
Nanophysics
Apr 7, 2016
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Many phenomena in physics, though well-known, are not necessarily widely understood. That's the case with thermoelectricity, which harnesses waste heat by coupling heat flux and electric current. However, understanding such ...
General Physics
Apr 5, 2016
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Each year, energy that equates to billions of barrels of oil is wasted as heat lost from machines and industrial processes. Recovering this energy could reduce energy costs. Scientists from Australia and Malaysia have developed ...
Energy & Green Tech
Mar 31, 2016
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In the production of power, nearly two-thirds of energy input from fossil fuels is lost as waste heat. Industry is hungry for materials that can convert this heat to useful electricity, but a good thermoelectric material ...
Materials Science
Nov 26, 2015
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The improvement of thermoelectric materials that can directly convert wasted heat to electric energy may lead to one of the solutions for energy issues. For high performance in thermoelectric materials, it's required to easily ...
Nanophysics
Nov 9, 2015
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Engines, laptops and power plants generate waste heat. Thermoelectric materials, which convert temperature gradients to electricity and vice versa, can recover some of that heat and improve energy efficiency. A team of scientists ...
Condensed Matter
Oct 19, 2015
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Harvesting heat produced by a car's engine which would otherwise be wasted and using it to recharge the car's batteries or powering the air-conditioning system could be a significant feature in the next generation of hybrid ...
Materials Science
Aug 4, 2015
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A growing interest in thermoelectric materials—which convert waste heat to electricity—and pressure to improve heat transfer from increasingly powerful microelectronic devices have led to improved theoretical and experimental ...
Nanophysics
Jun 23, 2015
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Researchers from the University of Houston have devised a new formula for calculating the maximum efficiency of thermoelectric materials, the first new formula in more than a half-century, designed to speed up the development ...
General Physics
Jun 22, 2015
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