The Nano–Material that can Produce Clean Energy from Waste Heat

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"Pursuing high ZT has been the focus of the entire thermoelectric community …" the researchers wrote. "However, for practical applications, efficiency is not the only concern, and high output power density is as important as efficiency when the capacity of the heat source is huge (such as solar heat), or the cost of the heat source is not a big factor (such as waste heat from automobiles, steel industry, etc.)"

Germanium-doped magnesium stannide has a fairly standard figure of merit, at 1.4, but a high power factor, at 55, the researchers report. That, coupled with a raw material cost of about $190 per kilogram, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Data Series, makes it commercially viable. Ren, who also is a principal investigator at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, said several competing materials have lower power factors and more expensive raw materials.

Diverse Application for new Nano Materials

The material was created through mechanical ball milling and direct current-induced hot pressing. It can be used with waste-heat applications and concentrated solar energy conversion at temperatures up to 300 degrees Centigrade. Ren said typical applications would include use in a car exhaust system to convert heat into electricity to power the car's electric system, boosting mileage, or in a cement plant, capturing waste heat from a smokestack to power the plant's systems.

Next to Ren, researchers on the paper include Weishu Liu, Hee Seok Kim, Shuo Chen, Qing Jie, Bing Lv and Paul Ching-Wu Chu, all of the UH physics department and the Texas Center for Superconductivity; Mengliang Yao, Zhensong Ren and Cyril P. Opeil of Boston College, and Stephen Wilson of the University of California at Santa Barbara.

* Jeannie Kever, Senior media relations representative at the University of Houston

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