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Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Chongqing University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a fabric that is capable of producing electricity from sunlight and from friction, including wind.
Getting power from both (or either) is a huge leap forward in lightweight, wearable power production.
Engineer, Zhong Lin Wang, from George Tech, explains “here, we present a foldable and sustainable power source by fabricating an all-solid hybrid power textile with economically viable materials and scalable fabrication technologies. Based on lightweight and low-cost polymer fibres, the reported hybrid power textile introduces a new module fabrication strategy by weaving it in a staggered way on an industrial weaving machine via a shuttle-flying process“…
They are experimenting with “arbitrary size and various weaving patterns” and finding success throughout…
Three examples of the textile at work, including “directly charging a cell phone (d) and continuously powering an electronic watch in a wearable manner (e).” Image: Nature Energy
Currently, someone walking in sunlight while wearing a 4x5cm piece of this cloth can generate about .5 mW of power. Taking into account the friction created by movement (like hand shaking), one person could generate up to 2 volts per minute.
“It is worth noting that the hybrid power textile is not limited to wearable applications,” Wang and co. write. “It can also act as a piece of flag, harvesting energy from sunlight and ambient wind blowing, and the delivered power is also capable of charging personal electronics as well as driving electrochemical reactions for self-powered water splitting.
In addition, the hybrid power textile was also demonstrated to generate power from weak sunlight and wind from a moving car in a city location on a cloudy day, which also indicates its decent capability of working even in a harsh environment.”
The study goes on to show that the materials are ready for industrial application. We could be wearing these very, very soon (via Minds).
If you like this idea, be sure to share it with your friends and inspire someone you know. Anything becomes possible with just a little inspiration…
