A New Way To Turn Heat Into Useful Energy
by Clark Griffin
Credit: © BillionPhotos.com / Adobe Stock
A team of scientists from all over the world have figured out how to capture heat and convert that into efficient energy. This discovery could impact a new generation to create a more energy efficient generation from heat such as industrial processes, car exhaust, etc. A quote from co-author of the study Joseph Heremans states: "Because of this discovery, we should be able to make more electrical energy out of heat than we do today," This discovery was centered around tiny particles called paramagnons: bits that aren’t necessarily magnets, but carry magnetic properties. It’s relevant because when magnets are heated they lose their magnetic force and become paramagnetic (substance or body very weakly attracted by the poles of a magnet, but not retaining any permanent magnetism.) A flux of magnetism or “spins” as scientists like to call it produces a type of energy called magnon-drag thermoelectricity, and until these scientists got together it wasn’t able to be used to collect energy at room temperature. The previous theory was that, if you have a paramagnet and it gets heated up nothing happens. They disproved that theory and found a new way of designing thermoelectric semiconductors or materials that convert heat to electricity. Herman a scientist working on the discovery claimed: “Magnets are a crucial part of collecting energy from heat: When a side of a magnet is heated, the other side - the colder side - gets more magnetic, producing spin, which pushes the electrons in the magnet and creates electricity.” Basically until this experiment nobody thought of using paramagnets to collect heat because people thought paramagnets weren't capable of harvesting energy. The team found that the paramagnons push electrons just long enough for paramagnets to harvest energy.
Questions
How do you think this will impact your future?
Do you think that paramagnons could be used in more ways to help create more efficient energy?
Thoughts on this new process?
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