RUNNING HEAD: THERMOELECTRICS 1

Hahnbee Lee

November 30, 2017

Thermoelectrics

Objective: To research into what I would do after creating the vanadium dioxide wire and order

materials.
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Materials and Methods

As of late Ive been looking at 2 different options as to how I would like to approach this

project either by creating a wire out of vanadium dioxide that will increase efficiency in a

peltier tile system or creating a novel application of thermoelectric systems to making use out of

the excess heat that is emitted from a car. Here is the research I have conducted into the

feasibility of going into either route.

Creating a Wire

If I were to create a vanadium dioxide wire I would need to look into the characteristics

of vanadium dioxide and the process it takes to create a solid wire out of a powder form

substance. I have found information on how the Midwest Tungsten Service creates a Tungsten

wire and it seems to be a long and gruesome process that involves a lot of heat and different sorts

of instruments. A substantial amount of weight is pressed onto a mold that compacts the

Tungsten powder into a fragile wire mold. Then the wire is cooked under high temperatures to

consolidate the material together. Then the wire is sintered which basically means that an

electric current is passed through the bar to densify the wire. Afterwards, the temperature of the

bar is raised to 1200C to 1500C and it is hit multiple times by a hammering it multiple times to

reduce the diameter. And finally, the wire is drawn into wires of diameters that go to be as small

as .0005 inches.

This whole process originally seemed to be very gruesome and full of lots of professional

equipment that I might not have access to, so as of now it is seeming that taking this route is

infeasible. However, after talking with Dr. P the chemistry teacher here at the Governors

School she has told me that we dont need to condense a wire, but rather we can electroplate a
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vanadium dioxide wire which is a fairly easy process that is a lab that can be done at the high

school level. Therefore, I must do more research on the process of electroplating.

Additionally, I had to look into how much vanadium dioxide I would need and Ive

concluded that it does not matter because as long as I have a proof of concept of an increase in

efficiency I will be fine.

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Data and Results

As for data and results I will be spending more time into researching how I will conduct

the experiment and measure the increases in efficiency. I will also need to learn how to measure

the constants to make sure that they stay constant such as the temperature gradient that I apply

needs to stay consistent through all of the trials. Additionally, I must figure out how many trials I

need and which different metals I will be testing in order to compare I will most likely have to

figure out which type of material is typically used in peltier tiles and use that as the control

group.
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References

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Iafolla, V., Nozzoli, S., & Fiorenza, E. (2003). One axis gravity gradiometer for the

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Lee, S., Hippalgaonkar, K., Yang, F., Hong, J., Ko, C., Suh, J., . . . Wu, J. (2017). Anomalously

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Yang, S. (2017, January 26). For This Metal, Electricity Flows, But Not the Heat | Berkeley Lab.

Retrieved October 26, 2017, from http://newscenter.lbl.gov/2017/01/26/electricity-not-

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