MATERIAL MAY HELP AUTOS TURN HEAT INTO ELECTRICITY

[mathew....@googlemail.com]

Researchers have invented a new material that will make cars even more
efficient, by converting heat wasted through engine exhaust into
electricity.

http://www.theanalystmagazine.com/pr/7010712.htm

[Benj]

This is a very interesting development, though hyped a bit more than
it's worth. The up side is that it's the first example of an
improvement in TE materials in ages. Here's a funny story: Back in
the early days of Lead Telluride people used to show a chart that show
TE coeeficients vs year. It started real low with thermocouples and
then began to exponentially increase as new materials were discovered
finally ending with Lead Telluride. Only they'd then extend the graph
with a dotted line showing the expected "new" materials to soon come
along that would revolutionize refrigerators and all the rest. Too
bad the real curve never got above Pb-Te!

But this one does! and that is exciting! But there is a catch here.
And that is that new higher efficiency only kicks in when the material
is at 950 oC. Hence the hype about strapping them to an auto
exhaust! Not too practical to built that long-sought no-moving-parts
refrigerator! Still it's a nice development!