Scanning transmission electron microscope image of a nickel-platinum composite material created at The Ohio State University. At left, the image is overlaid with false-color maps of elements in the material, including platinum (red), nickel (green) and oxygen (blue).

Scanning transmission electron microscope image of a nickel-platinum composite material created at The Ohio State University. At left, the image is overlaid with false-color maps of elements in the material, including platinum (red), nickel (green) and oxygen (blue).

The same researchers who pioneered the use of a quantum mechanical effect to convert heat into electricity have figured out how to make their technique work in a form more suitable to industry.

In Nature Communications, engineers from The Ohio State University describe how they used magnetism on a composite of nickel and platinum to amplify the voltage output 10 times or more -- not in a thin film, as they had done previously, but in a thicker piece of material that more closely resembles components for future electronic devices.