By using common materials found pretty much anywhere there
is dirt, a team of Michigan State University researchers have developed a new
thermoelectric material.
This is important, they said, because the vast majority of
heat that is generated from, for example, a car engine, is lost through the
tail pipe. It’s the thermoelectric material’s job to take that heat and turn it
into something useful, like electricity.
The researchers, led by Donald Morelli, a professor of
chemical engineering and materials science, developed the material based on
natural minerals known as tetrahedrites.
“What we’ve managed to do is synthesize some compounds that
have the same composition as natural minerals,” said Morelli, who also directs
MSU’s Center for Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion.
“The mineral family that they mimic is one of the most abundant minerals of
this type on Earth – tetrahedrites.