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Materials science

Desperately seeking silicon

Nature volume 451, pages 132–133 (2008)Cite this article

A Correction to this article was published on 16 January 2008

Using silicon as a 'thermoelectric' material to convert heat into electricity would be a technological leap forward. But silicon conducts heat so well that nobody thought that could work — until now.

Thermoelectric materials convert heat into electric current, and vice versa. If they could be made more efficient at that conversion, they might be used to suck up waste heat from fossil-fuel combustion processes to make electric current, or as an alternative to photovoltaic cells for converting solar warmth into elec-tricity1. Silicon, the basic material of semiconductor electronics, is readily available, cheap and has a huge infrastructure and know-how for its production and manipulation. Those are reasons enough to seek a marriage between silicon and thermoelectric properties.

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  1. Cronin B. Vining is at ZT Services, 2203 Johns Circle, Auburn, Alabama 36830-7113, USA. nature@zts.com ,

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Vining, C. Desperately seeking silicon. Nature 451, 132–133 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/451132a

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