In 1821, Thomas Seebeck discovered when two conductors with different materials and different temperature are connected, there is current flowing in the loop However, twelve years later, J. C. Peltier discovered an opposite phenomenon, that is ,by deleting a conductor in the loop, the external current can flow through the loop, and then a temperature difference between two connecting points is appeared. This phenomenon came to be known as Peltier Effect. Owing to the limitation of material at that time, the temperature difference in Petier Effect is mostly the thermal resistance produced when large current flows through the materail. Along with the development of material science in recent years, the heating or cooling effect of the connection point becomes more practical, which can be used as heat pumps. In actual application, there's no much difference with the cooling method that is based on fluorine carbon vapor compression refrigeration. There are no moving parts and working fluid in TEC, so it makes refrigeration equipment miniaturization possible.
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