Physicists Build Circuit That Generates Clean, Limitless Power From Graphene A team of University of Arkansas physicists has successfully developed a circuit capable of capturing graphene's thermal motion and converting it into an electrical current...
QuoteIn the 1950s, physicist Léon Brillouin published a landmark paper refuting the idea that adding a single diode, a one-way electrical gate, to a circuit is the solution to harvesting energy from Brownian motion. Knowing this, Thibado’s group built their circuit with two diodes for converting AC into a direct current (DC). With the diodes in opposition allowing the current to flow both ways, they provide separate paths through the circuit, producing a pulsing DC current that performs work on a load resistor.
The idea of harvesting energy from graphene is controversial because it refutes physicist Richard Feynman’s well-known assertion that the thermal motion of atoms, known as Brownian motion, cannot do work. Thibado’s team found that at room temperature the thermal motion of graphene does in fact induce an alternating current (AC) in a circuit, an achievement thought to be impossible.
Clarke's 1st law: When a distinguished scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
QuoteThe team also discovered that the relatively slow motion of graphene induces current in the circuit at low frequencies, which is important from a technological perspective because electronics function more efficiently at lower frequencies. According to Kumar, the graphene and circuit share a symbiotic relationship. Though the thermal environment is performing work on the load resistor, the graphene and circuit are at the same temperature and heat does not flow between the two.
This is an important distinction, because a temperature difference between the graphene and circuit, in a circuit producing power, would contradict the second law of thermodynamics. “This means that the second law of thermodynamics is not violated, nor is there any need to argue that ‘Maxwell’s Demon’ is separating hot and cold electrons,” prof. Thibado said.
Right, it would violate 1st law of thermodynamics instead: as it generates energy without any thermal flux at the end.. See also:
- Fluctuation-induced current from freestanding graphene - see free ArXiv preprint (PDF))
- Anomalous Dynamical Behavior of Freestanding Graphene Membranes
- Graphite based thermoelectric generators
- Italian GQenergy s.r.l. presented version 2.0 of graphene based free energy generator
- Brownian Motion of Graphene: Potential Source of Limitless Energy at Room Temperature
- Diamagnetic graphite based motor
- Electricity can flow through graphene at high frequencies without energy lossNegative refraction of electrons spotted in graphene