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Thursday, February 14, 2008 Power from FabricsContinued from page 1 By Prachi Patel-Predd
"The idea is ingenious," says Min-Feng Yu, a mechanical-science and engineering professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "It's like you have millions of nanogenerators outputting electricity simultaneously, each at maximum performance.". The generator's ability to capture small movements makes it especially useful for powering biological sensors, Thundat says. Microscale sensors can be implanted in the body to measure such things as cancer biomarkers and glucose. But chemical batteries are bulky compared with the tiny sensors, and they have a limited lifetime. "Implanted sensors based on [the fiber nanogenerator] concept could use blood pressure or muscle movement for operation," Thundat says. The Georgia Tech advance would not be possible without the simple but highly innovative process the researchers have used to make the fibers, Lieber points out. Zhong Lin Wang and his colleagues first cover a polymer fiber with a 100-nanometer-thick zinc oxide layer. They immerse the fiber in a reactant solution at 80 °C, which results in nanowires growing vertically from the surface. Then the researchers use a final trick to keep the nanowires firmly attached to the fibers while keeping the fibers flexible. They dip the fibers in tetraethoxysilane, a liquid used in weatherproofing and protective coatings. The tetraethoxysilane forms two coatings: one between the fiber and the zinc oxide layer, and another on top of the zinc oxide layer. This tetraethoxysilane coating makes the fiber robust. The zinc oxide layer did not crack or peel off even when the fiber was twisted. The nanowires also stayed put after the researchers continuously brushed two fibers against each other for 30 minutes. The fibers will have to last even longer and have higher output power in order to be used practically, Wang says. Power-generating shirts might still be out of reach for most. At this point, the fabric might be affordable for the military for use in tents and shoes, says Wang, but "it is probably too expensive for you and me to buy." |
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A New Nanogenerator
10/22/2007
Comments
patro7 on 02/14/2008 at 6:55 AM
3
Here is the kicker -- suppose you have a power scavenging fiber; how do you interconnect? Interconnect for e-textiles has always been the long pole in the tent. On another note, I would not settle for power scavenging for the sake of personal electronics, there are much cooler things we can do here...
dhall on 02/15/2008 at 6:40 PM
1
plasticdoc on 02/14/2008 at 9:34 AM
20
lightweight method of powering all the electronic equipment our troops are carrying now.
nanoenergy on 02/19/2008 at 3:49 PM
1
danimalia on 02/22/2008 at 12:14 AM
3
vbradley on 03/11/2008 at 12:38 AM
1
Couldn't a modification of this make electricity from the vibration of a magnet's molecules by making a sandwich of magnetized iron, and a thin matrix of microscopic coils and diodes? Wrap up the thin sheets of both into a cylinder so it can maintain a stronger magnetic field. Put output leads to power whatever you want. Lifetime battery?
You could call it a "free cell" or something. By experimenting with the microscopic wires & diodes in the matrix, you could adjust (at time of
manufacturing) the voltage per cell.
The higher the ambient temperature in a room, the more power this device would create. Might even cool a room down in a hot environment while at the
same time producing electricity.
Pass it on if you think it's worthwhile.
Vic Bradley
Vic@Vicshouse.com
William2008 on 03/13/2008 at 11:51 AM
1