how small is the smallest refrigerator in the world and can it fit an apple? In the era of pursuing the bigger the better, some people ingeniously developed an ultra-Mini “refrigerator” with a volume of only 1 cubic micron.
Scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) developed a miniature refrigeration device by innovating decades-old thermoelectric technology, which they dubbed the “world’s smallest refrigerator”. Of course, in the hot summer, this special “refrigerator” can’t hold leftover food or beer, but the research team hopes to use this nano-level device as a springboard to develop an advanced system that can cool objects almost instantly.
According to reports, the micro refrigeration device developed by the UCLA team involves two semiconductor materials: bismuth telluride and antimony-bismuth telluride. By attaching ordinary scotch tape to these materials and then peeling them off, scientists can obtain single wafers for manufacturing thermoelectric devices. The thickness of these sheets is only 100 nanometers, which is about 10 millionths of a meter.
The two semiconductors of the micro cooler overlap in the dark area in the middle. This is where the thermoelectric cooling effect occurs.
This little “fridge” is more than just a gimmick. The advantages of thermoelectric cooling devices include high reliability and small size, but unfortunately, these devices currently cannot generate enough power or keep large objects at a sufficient temperature . However, through further research on this nano-scale refrigeration device, the team hopes to better understand the physical principles, and then apply these experiences to the development of larger equipment. One of the tricks they want to borrow from this super Mini “refrigerator” is its unique ability to produce cooling effects almost instantaneously.
In the place where the two semiconductor materials of this mini refrigerator overlap, the formation of dewdrops (circular) can be seen as evidence of its cooling effect
Chris Regan, a professor of physics at UCLA who led the research team, pointed out that the size of a nano-scale refrigerator is so small that it can run millions of times faster than a refrigerator with a volume of 1 mm cube. This is already millions of times faster than existing refrigerators. Once it has figured out how thermoelectric cooling devices work at the atomic and near-atomic level, the team can expand the size to the macro level, which will bring huge rewards.
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