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Scientists use nanotubes to convert heat into electricity
Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 18:41 IST
Bangalore: Scientists at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have discovered yet another use for carbon nanotubes by using it to convert heat into electricity. A paper published by Michael Strano, the Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT, suggests that the nano-sized tubes could be used to produce batteries with up to 100 times the power density of existing cells, reports Danny Bradbury of BusinessGreen.
The paper, published in Nature Materials, is called chemically driven carbon-nano tube-guided thermopower waves. In the paper, Strano and his colleagues describe how an explosive microscopic shell wrapped around a multi-walled carbon nanotube can be used to push electrons ballistically down the tube's tiny aperture. "This wave produces a compliment and electrical pulse of disproportionately high specific power," said the paper.
Described as a thermopower wave, it can produce up to 7kW of power per kilogramme, which is an order of magnitude higher than the power density found in modern Lithium-ion batteries. "Such waves of high-powered density may find uses as unique energy sources," the researchers concluded.
