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Rocky Mudbutt [soylentnews.org] writes:

Collecting charge from a ribbon of single layer graphene, with a pair of diodes at the nanometer scale is a novel approach to converting heat to electricity.

Scitechdaily.com article on Non Linear power capture [scitechdaily.com]

From a new study published in the journal Physical Review E titled Charging capacitors from thermal fluctuations using diodes [aps.org] by P. M. Thibado, J. C. Neu, Pradeep Kumar, Surendra Singh and L. L. Bonilla, 16 August 2023, Physical Review

We theoretically consider a graphene ripple as a Brownian particle coupled to an energy storage circuit. When circuit and particle are at the same temperature, the second law forbids harvesting energy from the thermal motion of the Brownian particle, even if the circuit contains a rectifying diode. However, when the circuit contains a junction followed by two diodes wired in opposition, the approach to equilibrium may become ultraslow. Detailed balance is temporarily broken as current flows between the two diodes and charges storage capacitors. The energy harvested by each capacitor comes from the thermal bath of the diodes while the system obeys the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

Original Submission