Harvesting waste heat for useful purposes is an essential component of improving the efficiency of primary energy utilization. Today, approaches such as pyroelectric energy conversion are receiving renewed interest for their ability to turn wasted energy back into useful energy. From this perspective, the need for these approaches, the basic mechanisms and processes underlying their operation, and the material and device requirements behind pyroelectric energy conversion are reviewed, and the potential for advances in this area is also discussed.

中文翻译：

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余热能量收集的新方法：热电能量转换

收集有用的废热是提高一次能源利用效率的重要组成部分。如今，诸如热电能量转换之类的方法因其将浪费的能量转换回有用能量的能力而引起了人们的新兴趣。从这个角度出发，回顾了对这些方法的需求，其运行所依据的基本机制和过程，以及热电能量转换背后的材料和设备要求，并讨论了该领域的发展潜力。