{"id":668970,"date":"2026-09-02T15:46:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:46:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/668970\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T15:46:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:46:17","slug":"indian-scientists-break-a-century-old-limit-on-turning-heat-into-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/668970\/","title":{"rendered":"Indian scientists break a century-old limit on turning heat into electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Scientists in India have discovered a way to generate an unusually large electrical voltage from a small temperature difference, challenging a limit that has guided the understanding of solid materials for over a century.<\/p>\n

The breakthrough involves a specially engineered semiconductor made from scandium nitride (ScN).<\/p>\n

Researchers from the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), the University of Sydney and the Indian Institute of Science found that the material can produce a thermoelectric voltage far beyond what was previously considered possible in crystalline solids.<\/p>\n

The findings were published in the journal Science.
\n\"Schematic<\/p>\n

An electronic band diagram of heavily doped, highly compensated ScN showing thermopower exceeding the Boltzmann limit.\n<\/p>\n

HOW DOES HEAT MAKE ELECTRICITY?<\/p>\n

The discovery is based on the Seebeck effect.<\/p>\n

In simple terms, when one side of a material is hotter than the other, moving charge carriers can create a voltage.<\/p>\n

This effect is already used in devices such as temperature sensors and systems that convert waste heat into electricity.<\/p>\n

For decades, scientists believed there was a practical ceiling on how much voltage a temperature difference could generate in a crystalline solid.<\/p>\n

The new research challenges that assumption.<\/p>\n

The team created thin films of ScN and deliberately introduced magnesium into the material. This altered how charge moves through the crystal and produced what researchers call a heavily doped, highly compensated semiconductor.<\/p>\n

The result was rather prominent.<\/p>\n

Researchers measured a Seebeck coefficient exceeding -124.6 millivolts per kelvin near room temperature in one of the films, which is nearly 100 times beyond the earlier reported ceiling for crystalline solids.<\/p>\n

The effect became even stronger as the films were made thinner.
\n\"The
\nThe researchers have already built a preliminary photon sensor using the material. (Photo: PIB)\n<\/p>\n

HOW CAN THIS INNOVATION HELP?<\/p>\n

The finding could eventually lead to much more sensitive devices for detecting heat and tiny temperature changes.<\/p>\n

The researchers have already built a preliminary photon sensor using the material.<\/p>\n

When a laser illuminated one of its contacts, it created a tiny temperature difference that generated a measurable voltage.<\/p>\n

The device produced a Seebeck response of -102.4 millivolts per kelvin and showed a fast, repeatable response during repeated tests.<\/p>\n

The researchers say further development could potentially make such technology useful for detecting extremely weak light, including at the single-photon level.<\/p>\n

The research could also have applications in sensitive temperature sensors, thermal imaging, heat-flow detection and future quantum technologies.<\/p>\n

An Indian patent application has been filed covering thermoelectric thin-film materials and sensors based on the work.<\/p>\n

– Ends<\/p>\n

Published On: <\/p>\n

Sep 2, 2026 17:39 IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists in India have discovered a way to generate an unusually large electrical voltage from a small temperature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[271],"tags":[282438,282440,282442,18,282416,72366,282431,282439,282437,282428,282429,282435,19,39995,273678,282427,282415,17,282420,282423,452,268218,133,32977,282419,268221,282426,282424,81570,186288,282425,282417,282421,282418,18376,282422,282432,282441,282433,282430,282436,282443,282434],"class_list":["post-668970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-physics","tag-can-heat-be-converted-into-electricity","tag-can-the-material-detect-photons","tag-can-this-technology-detect-single-photons","tag-eire","tag-heat-to-electricity","tag-heat-energy-conversion","tag-how-can-temperature-differences-generate-voltage","tag-how-can-this-discovery-improve-temperature-sensors","tag-how-does-a-thermoelectric-material-work","tag-how-does-heat-generate-electricity","tag-how-does-the-seebeck-effect-work","tag-how-much-voltage-can-the-new-semiconductor-generate","tag-ie","tag-iisc","tag-indian-institute-of-science","tag-indian-science-breakthrough","tag-indian-scientists-breakthrough","tag-ireland","tag-jncasr","tag-photon-sensor","tag-physics","tag-scandium-nitride","tag-science","tag-science-journal","tag-scn-semiconductor","tag-seebeck-effect","tag-semiconductor-research-india","tag-single-photon-detection","tag-temperature-sensor","tag-thermal-imaging","tag-thermoelectric-effect","tag-thermoelectric-material","tag-thermoelectric-semiconductor","tag-thermoelectric-voltage","tag-university-of-sydney","tag-waste-heat-electricity","tag-what-did-indian-scientists-discover-about-thermoelectric-voltage","tag-what-is-a-photon-sensor","tag-what-is-scandium-nitride","tag-what-is-the-seebeck-effect","tag-what-is-the-thermoelectric-ceiling","tag-who-developed-the-new-thermoelectric-material","tag-why-is-scandium-nitride-useful-for-thermoelectric-devices"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}