Excerpt from Futurism
Written by Eleazer Corpuz
Home owners of the future may be able to save on electricity costs by simply buying a can of paint thanks to a new study by researchers from the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI).
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Paints that can produce electricity have been an area of study for a while now. One type, photovoltaic paint, can take the sun’s light and turn it into electricity, essentially giving people the ability to create “painted-on solar panels.” This new paint, on the other hand, is thermoelectric and produces electricity by harnessing the waste heat from hot surfaces. It combines bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) with molecular sintering aids and can be applied with a brush to flat or curved surfaces, making it applicable to almost anything.