Los Angeles: Engineers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed the world’s smallest refrigerator. However, it is impossible to keep food and beverages in it as it has a capacity of one square micrometer.
This allows small objects to be cooled quickly under a microscope. We know that the difference in temperature between two semiconductors can generate electricity which is called thermoelectric effect. But this process can also be reversed, ie one side can be kept hot and the other side cold when giving electricity. We will now call this device a thermoelectric cooler.
The UCLA team took two semiconductors made of bismuth tellloride and anti-mini, bismuth tellloride and glued ordinary tape on them. When the tape was pulled out again, only a small piece of each semiconductor stuck out. The piece became a 100-nanometer-thick thermoelectric device. Note that one nanometer is equal to one billionth of a meter.
World record
“We have set a new world record for the smallest thermoelectric cooler that produces cooling at a rate of tens of thousands,” said Xin Yingling, the study’s lead scientist. However, thermoelectric devices must be reliable. Due to their size and static parts, they do not generate enough electricity to keep large quantities of goods cold, while temperature changes are also taking place at nanoparticles.
However, this experiment can certainly help to understand physics on such a small scale. It cools millions of times faster due to its size. By understanding the thermoelectric effects at the nuclear level, we can develop large-scale cooling devices on a large scale.