Linkage grant follows discovery of record-efficiency thermoelectric in TI
23 May 2024
|By David Haworth
- new thermoelectric materials could unlock body-heat powered personal devices, such as wrist-watches
A new University of Wollongong study overcomes a major challenge of thermoelectric materials, which can convert heat into electricity and vice versa, improving conversion efficiency by more than 60%.
Current and potential future applications range from low-maintenance, solid-state refrigeration to compact, zero-carbon power generation, which could include small, personal devices powered by the body’s own heat.
“The decoupling of electronic (electron-based) and thermal (phonon-based) transport will be a game-changer in this industry,” says the UOW’s Prof Xiaolin Wang.