Researchers at IIT-Mandi in Himachal Pradesh are developing materials that can generate electricity with the help of heat. These materials are called 'Thermoelectric' materials.?
Reuters
Heat is generated quite commonly, through industries like power plants, home appliances and automobiles, but here this heat is lost and one doesn't truly make the most of it.
Headed by Ajay Soni, Associate Professor (Physics) with the School of Basic Sciences, IIT-Mandi, his team is looking and researching about materials that possess the ability to convert heat into electricity.?
The team has been working on the research on thermoelectric materials and has also published their papers in renowned international journals like Applied Physics Letters, Physical Review B and Journal of Alloys and Compounds.
Ajay Soni said in a statement, "Thermoelectric materials work on the principle of Seebeck effect, in which electricity is generated due to temperature differences across the junction of two materials."?
According to Soni, conventionally, a thermoelectric material must possess the quality of generating high thermoelectric power and electrical conductivity while keeping its thermal conductivity low along with the ability to sustain a temperature gradient.
As per Soni, getting a combination of materials to do this is really hard and some semiconducting materials need a little alteration to improve its thermoelectric efficiency.
Reuters
This however isn't the first research in thermoelectricity. Various carmakers like BMW, Volkswagen etc are known to apply this technology within its vehicles to use the heat generated from the exhaust to run the electricals in the car, replacing the alternator entirely.?
With fossil fuels getting depleted every day, the only hope humanity would have would be through renewable sources of energy. Among these,?solar and wind energy are the most popular. However, these too have their drawbacks pertaining to the reliance of adequate sunlight and winds to generate electricity efficiently.
Further advancement in thermoelectric generation could really help our country's efforts in minimising the load on thermal energy for electricity generation, while also providing a greener alternative.
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