Hikers, campers and runners could soon gain the ability to recharge their electronic gadgets while they’re out and about, simply by plugging them in to their clothes.
Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, published in the February 14 issue of the journal “Nature”, details how microscopic nano-technology could be incorporated into fabrics, and use the kinetic energy of the wearer to generate electricity.
Tiny textile fibers, coated with zinc oxide nano-wires, could also be woven into fabrics such as tents or flags, to capture energy from the wind or sound vibrations, and the nano-wires themselves even have the potential to generate electricity from ultrasonic waves or even blood flow.
“The fiber-based nano-generator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from physical movement,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Tech. “If we can combine many of these fibers in double or triple layers in clothing, we could provide a flexible, foldable and wearable power source that, for example, would allow people to generate their own electrical current while walking.”
The nano-generators consist of billions of tiny bristles that rub against each other when flexed, to produce en electrical current, and although just one nano-generator would produce a tiny amount of electricity, the combination of millions of nano-generators on one shirt, could be enough to recharge a cell phone or iPod.
There is, of course, a lot of research yet to be done before a power shirt will become a reality – and one challenge the team face is how to make the nano-generators waterproof. Currently, the Zinc oxide used on the fibers is sensitive to moisture, so in real shirts or jackets, Wang said, the nano-wires would have to be protected from the effects of the washing machine.
