Solar powered chemical photoswitches can scavenge heat

Whatever you’re doing some energy is lost as ‘low-grade’ heat energy, raising temperatures by an amount too measly to merit the resources needed to retrieve it again – or is it? Researchers in China and Sweden have shown that ‘molecular photoswitches’ that store energy in photon triggered chemical reactions, can also help harvest ambient heat that is then released at much higher, potentially more useful temperatures.