Scientists have figured out how to harness Brownian motion – literally the thermal energy of individual molecules – to make electricity, by cleverly connecting diodes up to pieces of graphene, which are atom-thick sheets of Carbon. The team has successfully demonstrated their theory (which was previously thought to be impossible by prominent physicists like Richard Feynman), and are now trying to make a kind of micro-harvester that can basically produce inexhaustible power for things like smart sensors.

The most impressive thing about the system is that it doesn’t require a thermal gradient to do work, like other kinds of heat-harvesting systems (Stirling engines, Peltier junctions, etc.). As long as it’s a bit above absolute zero, there’s enough thermal energy “in the system” to make the graphene vibrate continuously, which induces a current that the diodes can then pump out.

Original journal link: https://journals.aps.org/pre/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevE.108.024130

  • Curious Canid
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 year ago

    It sounds like this is a method for harvesting zero-point energy. If so, and if it works, that would certainly be a big step forward.

    • will_a113@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 year ago

      Sadly it’s not extracting energy from the quantum flux :) But happily, it is extracting energy from the heat of the world – of which there is plenty (enough for us to treat it as unlimited).

      • Curious Canid
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        Thanks for the explanation.

        I’m getting one scientific revolution ahead of things here.

    • Risk@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Is it? The fact it needs to be above absolute zero makes me think it’s instead just a clever way of harvesting the thermal energy of the environment without large apparatus.

      • will_a113@lemmy.mlOP
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        It’s definitely not extracting energy from the vacuum. It’s converting latent heat energy into electrical energy due to clever engineering and the quirky properties of graphene.