> Finding a high-efficiency thermoelectric material that works at normal temperatures and pressures is nearly as much of a Holy Grail as finding a high temperature superconductor.
No, TECs operates on a quirk related to semiconductor properties and are using electricity to move heat from one side to another but necessarily have resistance. Superconductors however are seeking zero electrical resistance. Current TECs produce 5x heat vs heat moved, and have a limited range of operation and a small range (30c) for the delta in heat between the two sides. I’ve been fascinated by TECs for years and I aspire to freeze CO2 with them, but it’s actually been really difficult to get cryogenic temperatures. You need to build a pyramid that has increasingly powerful TECs drawing heat away faster than it can accumulate. Even then I’m hitting walls in the -30c range because efficiency falls off a wall at both ends as you exceed the optimal ranges for the semiconductor materials.
Are they two sides of the same problem?