thermoelectric particles bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) tagged posts

A Monash University-led research team has discovered that a structure comprising an ultra-thin topological insulator sandwiched between two 2D ferromagnetic insulators becomes a large-bandgap quantum anomalous Hall insulator.

Such a heterostructure provides an avenue towards viable ultralow energy future electronics, or even topological photovoltaics.

Topological Insulator: The Filling in the Sandwich

In the researchers’ new heterostructure, a ferromagnetic material forms the ‘bread’ of the sandwich, while a topological insulator (ie, a material displaying nontrivial topology) ...

Thermoelectric paint being applied to an alumina hemisphere. The paint provides closer contact with the heat-emitting surface than conventional planar thermoelectric devices do. Credit: Park et al. ©2016 Nature Communications

Paint these days is becoming much more than it used to be. Already researchers have developed photovoltaic paint, which can be used to make “paint-on solar cells” that capture the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity. Now in a new study, researchers have created thermoelectric paint, which captures waste heat from hot painted surfaces and converts it into electrical energy.

“I expect that the thermoelectric painting technique can be applied to waste heat recovery from large-scale heat source surfaces, such as buildings, cars, and ship vessels,” said Jae Sung Son...