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from the getting-a-charge-out-of-painting dept.
NewAtlas has a story about a new thermoelectric paint which can turn any surface into an electricity generator.
Thermoelectric generators convert heat or cold to electricity (and vice-versa). Normally solid-state devices, they can be used in such things as power plants to convert waste heat into additional electrical power, or in small cooling systems that do not need compressors or liquid coolant. However the rigid construction of these devices generally limits their use to flat, even surfaces. In an effort to apply thermal generation capabilities to almost any shape, scientists at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in Korea claim to have created a thermoelectric coating that can be directly painted onto most surfaces.
Variously known as the Peltier, Seebeck, or Thomson effect, the thermoelectric effect is seen in semiconductor devices that create a voltage when a different temperature is present on each side or, when a voltage is applied to the device, it creates a temperature difference between the two sides. In this instance, the new paint created by the UNIST researchers is used specifically to heat a surface when a voltage is applied.
The specially-formulated inorganic thermoelectric paint was created using Bi2Te3 (bismuth telluride) and Sb2Te3 (antimony telluride) particles to create two types of semiconducting material. To test the resultant mixture, the researchers applied alternate p-type (positive) and n-type (negative) layers of the thermoelectric semiconductor paint on a metal dome with electrodes at the top and the base of the dome.
Applying a voltage across the electrodes, the researchers were able to measure a temperature gradient from the hot top of the dome to the cooler bottom. According to the researchers, the entire device generated an average power output of 4 mW per square centimeter.
Original Paper (Complete text)
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12 2016, @02:05PM
These devices don't convert heat to electricity. They convert a temperature difference to electricity. The heat doesn't disappear, it just gets transferred to the other (colder) side. Once the heat difference is gone, no more electricity.
If you can find a way to actually convert heat to electricity, you are going to be rich (assuming nobody patents the method before you can use it). Heat is what happens to waste energy. Heat is where the energy lost in a perpetual motion machines goes. Find a way to turn heat back into electricity, and you have solved both the perpetual motion machine and global warming.
When you build a refrigerator that has an electric socket rather than an electric plug, and the answer to "my beer isn't cold enough" is to plug another PC into the refrigerator, that's when you are converting heat to electricity.
And before anyone says "steam locomotive": The temperature difference between the boiler and the water tank is what allows to build steam pressure. Cold water in -> heat -> expands into steam.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday December 12 2016, @02:23PM
it is called solar power.
Efficiency hovers around 20-30%.
Cooler objects also have back body radiation, but there is less energy to work with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12 2016, @02:42PM
wrong. that's the photoelectric effect, very different from heat.
read it up. einstein got the fucking nobel prize for explaining that it's not heat...
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday December 12 2016, @05:41PM
It is possible to solar array [solarreserve.com] that uses heat to turn a turbine, rather than the photoelectric effect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 12 2016, @02:53PM
Heat is where the energy lost in a perpetual motion machines goes.
Well it ain't really a perpetual motion machine then is it?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday December 12 2016, @03:53PM
Find a way to turn heat back into electricity, and you have solved entropy
You're not thinking big enough. [multivax.com]