Thermoelectric Clathrate Material and the Kondo Effect Turns Industrial Waste Heat into Electricity

Clathrates: Tiny cages enclosing single atoms are shown.
Credit: TU Vienna

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have developed a material that can turn waste heat generated by machines into electricity using the Kondo effect and clathrates.

Researchers have designed a material that traps cesium atoms inside a lattice structure (clathrate). When the material is exposed to heat, the trapped atoms start vibrating within its lattice 'cage' and electricity is generated. This is due to the Kondo effect.

Named after Jun Kondo, a theoretical physicist from Japan, the Kondo effect describes how the electrical resistance of a metal increases when the temperature is lowered up to a certain point, known as the Kondo temperature.

The current research shows that the Kondo effect can also apply to very high temperatures.

What this means is that applications can be developed that will take advantage of waste heat produced by machines that can turn it into useful electrical energy rather than it being dissipated into the environment.