Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast

Episode 4: Turning Heat into Electricity


Listen Later

In this episode we talk about thermoelectrics, which are materials that can convert heat into electricity or vice versa. Since their inception almost 200 years ago there have been major advances in thermoelectric efficiency and they have found their way into some amazing applications such as NASA’s deep space probes or the Mars rover Curiosity.

For the latter half of the 20th century, thermoelectric materials research was relatively stagnant with little improvement in materials. However, in the last two decades there has been a resurgence of interest in these materials and efficiencies have doubled. For this episode we talk about these recent advances with Paul Slusser who founded Power Practical, a company that commercialized a camping stove with a built-in thermoelectric generator. We describe some of the techniques that have been employed to create this efficiency gains and ask whether or not these materials are likely to make it out of the laboratory and into the market.

Referenced Articles:

  • Northwestern Thermoelectrics Research Group [LINK]
  • New and Old Concepts in Thermoelectric Materials [LINK]
  • The panoscopic approach to high performance thermoelectrics [LINK]
  • Complex thermoelectric materials [LINK]
  • Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!

    If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at [email protected] or connect with us on social media: Instagram, Twitter.

    Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy production, marketing, and editing), Ramsey Issa (editing assistance).

    Keywords: thermoelectric ceramics energy thermal heat

    Support Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast by contributing to their Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/materialism

    Find out more at https://materialism.pinecast.co

    ...more
    View all episodesView all episodes
    Download on the App Store

    Materialism: A Materials Science PodcastBy Taylor Sparks and Andrew Falkowski

    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9
    • 4.9

    4.9

    135 ratings


    More shows like Materialism: A Materials Science Podcast

    View all
    Science Magazine Podcast by Science Magazine

    Science Magazine Podcast

    823 Listeners

    Economist Podcasts by The Economist

    Economist Podcasts

    4,203 Listeners

    Planet Money by NPR

    Planet Money

    30,759 Listeners

    Arms Control Wonk by Jeffrey Lewis & Aaron Stein

    Arms Control Wonk

    410 Listeners

    The Quanta Podcast by Quanta Magazine

    The Quanta Podcast

    526 Listeners

    SpaceTime: Your Guide to Space & Astronomy by Stuart Gary

    SpaceTime: Your Guide to Space & Astronomy

    292 Listeners

    The Future of Everything by Stanford Engineering

    The Future of Everything

    130 Listeners

    Physics World Weekly Podcast by Physics World

    Physics World Weekly Podcast

    77 Listeners

    Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas by Sean Carroll | Wondery

    Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas

    4,146 Listeners

    Chemistry For Your Life by Melissa and Jam, Bleav

    Chemistry For Your Life

    294 Listeners

    Decouple by Dr. Chris Keefer

    Decouple

    146 Listeners

    Unexplainable by Vox

    Unexplainable

    2,298 Listeners

    Catalyst with Shayle Kann by Latitude Media

    Catalyst with Shayle Kann

    275 Listeners

    The Joy of Why by Steven Strogatz, Janna Levin and Quanta Magazine

    The Joy of Why

    497 Listeners

    The Astrophysics Podcast by Paul Duffell

    The Astrophysics Podcast

    56 Listeners