(February 3, 2014) Nano-heat engine likely to operate at high efficiency /
Publication in Physical Review Letters
Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and
the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg are working on a heat engine that consists
of just a single ion. Such a nano-heat engine could be far more efficient than,
for example, a car engine or a coal-fired power plant. A usual heat engine
transforms heat into utilizable mechanical energy with the corresponding
efficiency of an Otto engine amounting to only about 25 percent, for instance.
The proposed nano-heat engine consisting of a single calcium ion would be much
more efficient. The main aim of the research being conducted is to better
understand how thermodynamics works on very small scales. A pilot prototype of
such a single-ion heat engine is currently being constructed at Mainz
University.