Thermoelectric Refrigeration

Nobody likes a noisy refrigerator! Thermoelectric devices can produce cooling by using the electrons in semiconductors to carry heat away from an area, not much differently than the way electrons carry a charge along copper wires and in electrochemical cells. Refrigerators using this technology could be made very small, light and portable, and have a fast response time and good temperature stability. They would have no moving parts that degrade with time. Our movie demonstrates the operation of a 1-inch device made with the semiconductor Bi2Te3 that cools a copper plate to more than 20° below room temperature.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• thermoelectric
• refrigeration
• semiconductor
• materials science
• demonstration
• education
• maryland

[oshi101]

i have a question.can i use this technology in a large cooling system ?.

[materialsatumd]

@oshi101 We forwarded your question to Professor Oded Rabin, who created this demonstration. His response was that he has seen it used in a 2 gallon refrigerator, but is not certain how far the technology has or currently can be scaled up.

[materialsatumd]

@oshi101 Professor Rabin replies, "Yes, thermoelectric devices can be used to cool a cpu. I think there are some youtube videos showing how to do-it-yourself."

[YamiPoyo]

Can this be made to cool a cpu?

[elcano9]

this is VERY nice, I got interested in this technology since I bought a portable 12V DC cooler and noticed there was no gas, no compresor, etc. Only a computer style fan and heat sink. VERY NICE!