3) Thermoelectric Materials
Most machinery we’ve invented is pretty inefficient as far as energy goes. Basically, if something gets hot whilst it’s doing its business, it is wasting energy (except for irons and cookers, they’re supposed to get hot). The heat generated in cars or laptops is surplus to requirement and a total waste. Some estimates say that 2/3 of all the energy we harvest is wasted.
Thermoelectric materials are heat scavengers, they take this excess heat and convert it back into useful energy. One of these magical thermoelectric materials is tetrahedrite, an even better performer is skutterudite (above), which also has the better name of the two. Its structure (below) is where its magic lies:
Skutterudite is a compound containing cobalt which could eventually be cheap enough to be mass-produced. In the future you’ll be wrapping the stuff round your car exhaust and every other heat wasting gizmo you have.
