Thermoelectrics

Hybrid Thermoelectric Compound

The material sets the stage for new forms of electric power in the future.

Stretchable Thermoelectric Generators

The organic composite material is soft, stretchable, and has good thermoelectric properties for many wearable applications.

Reduced Heat Leakage Improves Wearable Health Device

A flexible device worn on the wrist harvests heat energy from the human body to monitor health.

Pyroelectric Sandwich Thermal Energy Harvester

The technology harvests electrical energy from waste heat sources.

Heated Facemask Filters and Inactivates Coronaviruses

The reusable mask would include a heated copper mesh powered by a battery and surrounded by insulating neoprene.

Q&A: Electricity-Free Cooling

Professor Qiaoqiang Gan of the University at Buffalo (NY) and his team developed a unique two-in-one system that uses solar energy for simultaneously cooling and heating — without electricity.

New on the Market: April 2021

Displacement sensors, metal 3D printers, shielding materials, and more.

New Wearable Device Turns the Body Into a Battery

Researchers at CU Boulder have developed a new, low-cost, wearable device that transforms the human body into a biological battery. The device is stretchy enough that you can wear it like...

Material Moves Wind Turbine Blades Toward Recyclability

The material can be recycled, making renewable energy more sustainable while lowering costs in the process.

New Materials Boost Efficiency and Stability of Optical Rectennas

The improved rectennas could operate low-power devices such as temperature sensors.

Solid-State Technology Enables Smaller, Safer Batteries

The technology is inherently safer and more energy-dense than today’s lithium-ion batteries.

High-Performance, Lightweight, Easy-to-Fabricate Heat Exchanger

This can be used in energy-recovery systems in industrial, space, automotive, and military applications.

Products of Tomorrow: September 2020

An A/C alternative, AI that sharpens blurry images, and a NASA energy harvester.

Wiegand Wire: Energy Harvesting and More

With the emergence of a new generation of ultra-efficient electronic chips, the Wiegand technology is showing significant promise, especially in the exciting area of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Transparent Graphene Electrodes Might Lead to New Generation of Solar Cells

A new way of making large sheets of high-quality, atomically thin graphene could lead to ultra-lightweight, flexible solar cells, and to new classes of...

Products of Tomorrow: December 2019

Products include an aerosol scattering sensor; metal foam; and a new coated drug capsule.

Q&A: Refrigeration by Twisting Fibers

Changing directions of twist and coiling changes whether a material cools or heats.

'Direct Thermal Charging Cell' Turns Waste Heat into Power

A new charging cell wants to use low-grade heat from our industrial processes to power our devices.

New on the Market: August 2019

Circular Connectors

Binder USA, Camarillo, CA, introduced the 720 Series of miniature circular connectors with a snap-in IP67 twin distributor. The distributor — a single male connector into two...

Facility Focus: National Energy Technology Laboratory

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory — with sites in Anchorage, AK; Albany, OR; Morgantown, WV; and Pittsburgh, PA...

Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion

Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPE™) allows creation of wire, bar, and tubular extrusions that show significant improvement in material properties; for example, magnesium extrusions have...

Thin-Film System Converts Heat from Electronics into Energy

Nearly 70 percent of the energy produced in the United States each year is wasted as heat. Much of that heat is less than 100 °C and emanates from things like computers, cars, or...

Achieving Carbon Footprint Reduction with Flywheel Technology

Recent technical advances have enabled flywheel energy storage systems (FESS) to become more compact and able to support higher-power applications. Due to their proven...

Flexible, Spinning Heat Shield for Spacecraft

Heat shields are essentially used as the brakes to stop spacecraft from burning up and crashing on entry and reentry into a planet's atmosphere. Current spacecraft heat shield methods include...

A 'Solid' Idea for Powering Spacecraft: Thermoacoustics

Researchers from Purdue University demonstrated that thermoacoustics properties could theoretically occur in solids as well as liquids.

Thermal Energy Storage and Monitoring

Water heaters and other thermal energy storage devices increase the temperature of a medium above an ambient or normal temperature, and store the warmer medium. Water heaters, in particular, must store...

System Draws Power from Daily Temperature Swings to Produce Electricity

Thermoelectric devices generate power when one side of the device is a different temperature from the other. Instead of requiring two different temperature inputs at...