藤儿点评：「eDrink」应该归类到热电（thermoelectricity/pyroelectricity）现象。即各种晶体由于温度变化产生的带电现象。

「eDrink」的制造关键，应该在热电材料（Thermoelectric materials）。即一种能将热能和电能相互转换的功能材料。

「eDrink」的应用理论依据，应该来源于1823年发现的塞贝克效应和1834年发现的帕尔帖效应。它们为热电能量转换器和热电制冷的应用提供了理论依据。

「eDrink」的诞生，也是随着iPhone/iPad的迅猛发展，继人类空间探索兴趣的增加、医用物理学的进展以及在地球日益增加的资源考察与探索活动，需要开发一类能够自身供能且无需照看的电源系统，应运而生。当然，热电发电对这些应用尤其合适。

热电材料以其独特的性能成为一种很有发展前途的功能材料, 它的应用包括温差发电和温差制冷。

1823年，德国人塞贝克（Seebeck）发现了材料两端的温差可以产生电压，也就是通常所说的温差电现象。1834年，法国钟表匠珀耳帖（Peltier）在法国《物理学和化学年鉴》上发表了他在两种不同导体的边界附近（当有电流流过时）所观察到的温差反常的论文。这两个现象表明了热可以致电，而同时电反过来也能转变成热或者用来制冷，这两个现象分别被命名为塞贝克效应和珀耳帖效应。

什么是热电材料呢？

热电材料是一种利用固体内部载流子运动实现热能和电能直接相互转换的功能材料。

类似「eDrink」这样的产品，其广泛应用必然依赖新型热电材料的研究成果。

估计，「eDrink」要让一个iPhone/iPad完全充满电，可能要耗时一个月！

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来源：Treehugger 2015-04-14

Teen inventor creates a coffee mug to power your gadgets

Video screen capture Global News

Sometimes we learn about teens who are already changing the world and giving us great hope for the future. Teens starting e-waste recycling businesses, creating devices to reduce human-wildlife conflict in Africa, and inventing ways to clean up plastic in the ocean.

One of the best-known teen clean technology inventors is 17-year-old Ann Makosinski. At 15 she won the largest prize for her age group in the worldwide Google Science Fair for inventing a hollow flashlight that is powered by the heat of your hand. The flashlight is covered in Peltier tiles which generate electricity from the temperature difference that occurs between the two sides of the tiles when your hand touches the outside.

Queenie Andini/Screen capture

Makosinski has invented a new technology using the same tiles that she will present at a science fair in Pittsburgh soon. The "E-Drink," a coffee cup covered in the Peltier tiles, uses the heat of a hot beverage to charge your gadgets via a USB port on the bottom of the mug. As Makosinski explains, your morning ritual could turn into a way to top off your phone's battery with clean energy.

“I saw how you get a hot drink…and you’d just be waiting and waiting for it to cool down so you can start drinking,” she said.

“Why not harvest some of that lost heat, which is energy, and convert it to electricity?”

She's not giving too many details yet, but her body heat-powered flashlight is already going into production and will have mass distribution, so we feel certain that we'll be reading more about the E-Drink soon enough.