Converting "just heat" into electricity is impossible though, that would break the laws of thermodynamics and create a perpetual motion machine. There is heat literally everywhere, even the coldest things we have made are not exactly 0K. So you could create electricity for free anywhere.

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

We're already close to the efficiency limit. Look up Carnot cycle.

[–] raicon@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The Carnot cycle is just for the Carnot engine. If we could use chemistry or quantum systems, it would have different efficiencies

[–] solrize@lemmy.ml -1 points 4 days ago

No really if you could convert heat to motion more efficiently than the (ideal) Carnot engine, you could have perpetual motion since the Carnot engine is reversible.

[–] Impronoucabl@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

Interesting, but I don't see it as practical anytime soon. It's going to be expensive/hard seperating out the salt from the solvent, and even the paper's author recognises as such.

I wonder how Elastocaloric refrigeration compares, because that's looking like a far more viable alternative.