How to Freeze Heat Conduction
(World News Austria)

Every day we lose valuable energy in the form of waste heat - in technical devices at home, but also in large energy systems. Part of it could be recovered with the help of the `thermoelectric effect`. The heat flow from a hot device to the cold environment can be directly converted into electrical power. To achieve that, however, materials with very special properties are required. They have to be good electrical conductors, but bad thermal conductors - two requirements which are difficult to reconcile. Researchers all over the world are looking for such materials. Certain materials with a cage-like structure have proved particularly promising, for example clathrates, which are studied at...