Monday, 19th February 2007 (4071 views)

The prospect of an alternative energy source rooted in the earth's metal resources has moved one step nearer realisation as researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, reveal that they have generated electricity from the heat created by trapping organic molecules between metal nanoparticles.

Production of electricity through indirect conversion of heat is one of the most well-established methods for generating power, and is a critical way of using the vast amounts of wasted heat generated by traditional energy-production methods.

Using conventional methods, "generating one watt of power requires about three watts of heat input and involves dumping into the environment the equivalent of about two watts of power in the form of heat," Berkeley professor of mechanical engineering, Dr Arun Majumdar, explained.

"If even a fraction of the lost heat can be converted into electricity in a cost-effective manner, the impact it would have on energy can be enormous, amounting to massive savings of fuel and reductions in carbon dioxide emissions."

The Berkeley study, which used gold electrodes, suggests that the wasted heat generated could be productively converted – holding out the possibility of developing more cost-effective thermoelectric converters by using inexpensive organic molecules and metal nanoparticles, as in the study.

 

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