THERMOELECTRIC MATERIAL CONVERTS COMBUSTION
Scientists have invented a new material that converts the heat wasted
from combustion engines in vehicles, power stations and heat pumps.
The thermoelectric new material turns heat into energy without any
carbon emissions.
With up to 60 percent of a gasoline engine's energy lost through waste
heat, the thermoelectric device using lead telluride runs with no
moving parts.
Joseph Heremans of Ohio State University has heralded a bright future
for thermoelectric nanotechnology stating that lead telluride has
twice the efficiency of anything currently available.
The lead telluride creates electric power like a conventional heat
engine coupled to an electric generator, but uses electrons as the
working fluid instead of water or gas
The material is most effective between 450 and 950? Fahrenheit, which
is the typical temperature range for many power systems, including car
engines.
Know as thallium-doped lead telluride, the anti- pollution material is
twice as efficient as the second most efficient material used in
thermoelectric power.
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Further details
Joseph Heremans
Professor
Ph.D., Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium (1978)
Room E443
201 W. 19th Ave.
Columbus, OH 43210
614-247-8869
Email: heremans.1
Thrust Area(s): Energy, Fluid, and Thermal Systems
Research
Dr. Heremans' research is focused on thermal transport properties of solids and nanostructures, aimed at developing thermoelectric materials with improved efficiency for both electrical power generation and heat pumping applications. A decade of research in his group and others has led to improved efficiencies through a reduction of the thermal conductivity by adding nanostructrues to thermoelectric materials. In contrast, since 2005, he has focused on developing bulk thermoelectric materials in which the increased efficiency is based on the details of the chemical bonds at sub-nanometer levels. One approach maximizes the anharmonicity of the bonds between atoms to reduce the thermal conductivity, and is published in Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 035901 (2008). A second approach increases the thermoelectric power by using a resonance between the electronic states of Tl atoms and the valence band of PbTe (Science 321 554, 2008).
Selected Publications
Joseph P. Heremans, Vladimir Jovovic, Eric S. Toberer, Ali Saramat, Ken Kurosaki, Anek Charoenphakdee, Shinsuke Yamanaka, and G. Jeffrey Snyder, "Enhancement of Thermoelectric Efficiency in PbTe by Distortion of the Electronic Density of States," Science, vol. 321, no. 5888, pp. 554-557 (2008).
D. T. Morelli, V. Jovovic and J. P. Heremans, Intrinsically minimal thermal conductivity in cubic I-V-VI2 semiconductors, Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 035901 (2008)
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