New Applications

Thermoelectric devices have other useful applications apart from generating electricity. In fact the first commercial application of nanostructured thermoelectric materials is in the computing industry for cooling microprocessors. The market for thermal management in the electronics industry is huge (about 3.3 billion USD, and is expected to grow approximately 12% per year to 6 billion USD by 2008). Conventionally microprocessors were kept cool (within their operating temperatures) by mechanical fans. However the increased numbers and densities of transistors on the more powerful computer chips has made this almost impossible to achieve using fans.

Nanostructured thermoelectric materials on the otherhand can be highly effective at cooling such chips just by applying as microdots. In this case one side of the microdot absorbs heat, which is then emitted from thermocouples at the other side.