Fabric Generator Could be Sewn into Clothing

Mar-15-15 A new fabric able to harness energy from the wearer's motions could one day be used to power smart watches and other small, personal devices.

Developed by a team from Sungkyunkwan University, the fabric generator works using the triboelectric effect and is made up of two layers of silver-coated woven textiles. On one layer, the team grew zinc oxide nanorods and coated them with polydimethylsiloxane, while the other layer was left plain. The nanorods increase the friction between the two layers, in turn boosting the power output. The team then stacked the generator layers four deep in order to further increase the output.

The generator was attached to a jacket sleeve to demonstrate its potential, where it was able to power a small LCD display, six LEDs and a keyless car remote control one at a time simply with the movements of the wearer's arms or wrists.

Image Credit: ACS Nano
The generator consists of two layers. One is a silver-coated woven textile (gray). The other is a textile decorated with zinc oxide nanorods (yellow) and coated with polydimethylsiloxane (blue).

More Info about this Invention:

[DISCOVERY.COM]
[CEN.ACS.ORG]

---