Material from dirt converts waste heat directly to electricity

Researchers produced the groundbreaking substance using commonly found materials and believe it could spark a revolution in eco-friendly power generation by taking waste heat from a range of common sources and converting it directly to electricity, the 'Daily Mail' reported.

So-called thermoelectric materials are able to directly convert differences in temperature to electrical voltage, and vice versa.

These are potentially important, scientists say, because the vast majority of heat that is generated from, for example, a car engine, is lost through the tail pipe.

It's the thermoelectric material's job to take that heat and turn it into something useful, like electricity.

Such materials have been made before, but previous examples have been derived from rare and sometimes toxic elements, often by way of expensive synthesis procedures.

Donald Morelli, a professor of chemical engineering and materials science at Michigan State University, led the team which developed the material based on natural minerals known as tetrahedrites.

"What we've managed to do is synthesise some compounds that have the same composition as natural minerals," said Professor Morelli, director of MSU's Centre for Revolutionary Materials for Solid State Energy Conversion.

"The mineral family that they mimic is one of the most abundant minerals of this type on Earth