New type of thermoelectric conversion of energy by semiconducting liquid anisotropic media

Abstract

The paper describes preliminary investigations of a new effect in conducting anisotropic liquids, which leads to thermoelectric conversion of energy. Nematic liquid crystals with semiconducting dopes are used. A thermoelectric figure of merit ZT = 0.2 is obtained in experiments. The effect can be explained by assuming that the thermocurrent in semiconducting nematics, in contrast to the Seebeck effect, is a nonlinear function of the temperature gradient and of the temperature itself. Though the discovered effect has to be further investigated, the data obtained suggest that it can be effectively used in alternative energy engineering.