The Seebeck effect means that the junction of two dissimilar conductors will produce voltage potential when heated, and this can even apply to certain alloys, even without junctions.
Hackaday has details of recent experimentation with thermoelectric alloys, investigating the effects of adding lead, antimony, tin and zinc to bismuth alloys to create useful materials for converting heat into electrical power.
One end of the cylinder was cooled with ice, while the other was held in boiling water, with resistance measured to approximate each alloy’s thermal conductivity.
The resultant data enabled Simplifier to calculate each alloy’s thermoelectric efficiency coefficient, showing antimony to be a beneficial additive, whilst zinc was only useful for improving mechanical properties.
The best efficiency didn’t exceed 6.9%, which is still respectable for a homemade material.
