Timeliness in the development of thermoelectric cooling

The Peltier effect was discovered early in the 19th century but has only been seriously exploited during the second half of the 20th century. This was no accident, since the development of materials that would yield worthwhile thermoelectric refrigeration depended on a knowledge of the physics of semiconductors, a deeper understanding of heat conduction by the lattice and new metallurgical techniques. Thus, bismuth telluride, already known to have interesting thermoelectric properties, was soon developed into the material that is essentially what is used in today´s thermoelectric coolers. At the present time, there are novel methods for the controlled deposition, layer by layer, of multi-phase systems, for example by molecular beam epitaxy, and theoretical treatments of the thermoelectric properties of one- and two-dimensional conductors. There are also reported developments in so-called vacuum thermoelements. So, too, is there the need for refrigeration systems that do not depend on CFC´s or other undesirable gases. It seems, then, that the time is right for us to expect significant advances in the field of Peltier cooling