Heat to Power, Directly

This article elaborates the recent advancement of nanoscale engineering. With the developments in mechanical engineering labs, researchers have begun to fabricate high-efficiency thermoelectric materials with features as small as a few dozen nanometers. These nanoscale materials behave differently from bulk solids with the same chemistry, and in some cases are easier to produce. It is observed that the cooler made with nanomaterials brought the temperature down some 30° more than one made with two commercially available alloys could. The breakthroughs seen of late in nanoengineered materials suggest that thermoelectricity's day in the sun is closer than ever before. It is found that if nanostructure materials are used, then one can develop a thermoelectric generator that was 8 to 9 percent efficient; intercepting a fraction of the heat from a car's exhaust steam and converting it to electricity could recover 1 to 2 percent of the fuel's original energy.