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Waste not, want not
Converting waste heat into electricity
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"Waste
heat" might not be such a waste after all. The
excess heat produced in everything from microelectronics
to large ship engines is generally thought of as a problem
for engineers to solve. But a new leap in semiconductor
technology funded by the Office of Naval Research could
put that troublesome heat to good use.
Dr. Mihal Gross of ONR's physical sciences division
explains, "With this class of semiconductors, when
you have a temperature gradient you can generate electrical
current. Or if you pass an electrical current through
the material, you can get a temperature gradient for
cooling." An ONR-funded research group at Michigan
State University led by Dr. Mercouri Kanatzidis has
found the right combination of ultrapure lead, antimony,
silver, and tellurium for a material (called LAST) that
is significantly more efficient for high temperature
power generation than existing thermoelectric materials.
His work is described in the 6 February 2004 issue of
Science.
"The Navy is
looking at the material's power generation potential,"
says Gross, "We have the potential to exploit
regions on a ship or land vehicle where there is waste
heat, and use it to produce electricity." Because
the material can be produced in bulk, its uses could
one day include replacing today's shipboard steam
plants, which run generators, with solid state modules
of LAST that would produce electricity directly.
Funded through a Multi-University
Research Initiative (MURI), the Michigan State group
has developed a fundamental understanding of the chemical
properties needed to create the ideal material with
high electrical conductivity but low thermal conductivity.
The secret to the new material's efficiency seems
to be in the nanostructures within it that impede
the flow of heat by introducing internal boundaries.
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