A team of University of Maryland scientists have discovered that when electric current is run through carbon nanotubes, objects nearby heat up while the nanotubes themselves stay cool. Understanding this completely unexpected new phenomenon could lead to new ways of building computer processors that can run at higher speeds without overheating. The researchers have dubbed the … [Read more...]
'Nanorefrigerator' Cooled By Sunlight
Researchers in Belgium have drawn up plans for an electronic "nanorefrigerator" device that is driven by high-energy photons, and could, therefore, potentially be directly powered by the sun. The device consists of two electrodes, one of which is cooled by replacing hot electrons with cool ones via photon absorption. While this is not the first system that applies the "cooling … [Read more...]
Researchers Create Cheap Thermoelectric Materials
A team led by Dr Ole Martin Løvvik of Oslo University’s Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology in Norway has found a way of making cheap thermoelectric materials that could harvest waste heat from a range of scenarios. However, attempts to bring the technology into the mainstream, in order to harvest waste heat from industrial and everyday scenarios, have been limited … [Read more...]
