Producing Electricity

• New Device Turns Waste Heat Into Energy
  • Stack of metals with large surface area will produce produce sound when hot air moves over them. The sound is then converted with a piezoelectric device into electricity.
• Nanoparticles used to create electricity
  • 90% of world electricity comes from fossil fuel combustion, requiring 3 watts of heat to prouce one watt of useful power
  • Seebeck effect: Organic molecule trapped between two gold surfaces will produce electricity if one side is heated. Future versions of this could use less expensive metals. Voltage is generated at the junctio of metals kept at different temperatures. How does this differ from a thermocouple?
  • Seebeck effect has only recently been seen with organic molecules, previously it needed rare and expensive metals.

From Science