Researchers at Ohio State University have invented a new material designed to make cars more efficient by converting heat wasted through engine exhausts into electricity.

Scientists rate the efficiency of thermoelectric (TE) materials based on how much heat they can convert into electricity at a given temperature. To maximise the amount of electricity produced by a TE material, engineers would normally try to limit the amount of heat that can pass through it without being captures and converted to electricity. So the typical strategy for making a good TE material is to lower its thermal conductivity.

Project leader, Joesph Heremans took a different approach, focussing on how to convert the maximum amount of heat that was naturally trapped in the TE material. To do this he took embraced some new ideas in quantum mechanics.

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