This one is advanced science but has some great ideas for the experimenter
http://revolution-green.com/harvesting-renewable-energy-earths-infrared-emissions/
Kind Regards
Mark
Quote from: markdansie on March 04, 2014, 09:53:47 AM
This one is advanced science but has some great ideas for the experimenter
http://revolution-green.com/harvesting-renewable-energy-earths-infrared-emissions/
Kind Regards
Mark
People who aren't careful might miss that part that in order to work a temperature gradient is required. They might then confuse this for the Brillioun diode PMM. Brillioun disproved the possibility of such a device in thermal equilibrium for reasons that Gunn also elaborated and many people miss: Voltage rectification is not the same thing as energy gating. An energy source could have a relative negative or positive voltage polarity. A diode passes current based on voltage polarity. In the presence of random noise a very low, or even true zero bias diode will on average pass noise energy from either side of the diode to the other. Net power in either direction on average is zero.
As the article points out, if there is a temperature difference from one side of the diode to the other, then the mechanics change. Energy potential and voltage potential on average align, and now useful work can be harvested. For IR, I think that nanoscale work on rectennae offer better efficiency promise than semiconductor diodes.
yes @mark E.a contact potential difference is an inbuilt single potential difference,we cant make spontaneous use of it,unless we split it up into a galvanic potential difference,eg.zinc/copper daniel cell or karpen gold/platinum oxygen concentration cell.