carbon nanotubes (MIT)
Engineers and scientists at MIT have found a new way to generate electricity. The process takes place from power plants capable of generating wave energy, which is carried by carbon nanotubes inside the device. This system could be used to develop a whole new class of tiny generators, ideal for use in small electronic devices or even within the medical or environmental sensors.
specialists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have made significant progress by exploiting a previously unknown phenomenon, but that could change the way we generate electricity. It is a system capable of producing significant amounts of energy from a tiny gadget-well over smaller than a grain of rice-built based on carbon nanotubes. Essentially, the device consists of a series of nanotubes coated with a layer of fuel. In the same way that a light body may travel along the surface of the ocean-driven waves, thermal waves generated on the surface of microscopic carbon fibers can travel through them and create an electrical current. This is a new way to produce electricity, which could lead to a new area of \u200b\u200bexpertise in the energy field and whose main practical application would be, at least in principle nanoelectronic devices.
The news was announced through a press release from MIT, and then published in specialized magazines such as Nature Materials. The scientist in charge of the team that performed the work is Wonjoon Choi, a doctoral student in mechanical engineering from the Institute. In its letter Choi explained that the electricity generation process occurs when the nanotubes are coated with a layer of a fuel jet that can produce heat for decomposition. This fuel is ignited when lit at one end of the nanotubes using a laser or a high voltage electric spark. The combustion heat generated in the form of a thermal wave travels fast moving through nanotubes at high speed, about 10,000 times faster than any other chemical reaction "conventional." The temperature rises to about 2700 degrees Celsius, and the heat generated by combustion provides the energy required for electrons begin to move along the carbon nanotubes, creating "a considerable power."
The electrons move along carbon nanotubes.
The amount of energy released in this process is much greater than that provided by traditional calculations in the field of thermoelectric waves. This was already noticed by experts in the initial experiments. Engineers, stunned by magnitude of peak voltage resulting after turning on the fuel cladding in carbon nanotubes, redoubled their efforts to understand the detail and optimize this new phenomenon. Other materials, such as semiconductors, which have the property of producing an electric potential when heated (known as the Seebeck effect), but it is a completely different principle discovered carbon nanotubes. According to the explanation of the researchers, these devices there is an "electron drag" due to the ability of the thermal wave has to "take" with her over the microconductos created by the nanotubes. All this helps to achieve high power it is capable of generating the system.
is too early to speculate on the real scope of this new way of generating electricity, but given the small size of the device and its large capacity, scientists believe that these generators could be used to power tiny devices to be implanted in the human body or as part of remote sensing. Choi Wonjoon team says that even could be used to generate alternating current. Without doubt, this is a discovery that could revolutionize the way we feed our equipment.
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