Flexible Film Captures Energy from Motion
Nelson Sepulveda, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Michigan State University, rides a bike for 35+ KM at least once a week and he thought how can he convert its mechanical motion into electricity. He and his colleagues gave a report in a journal about a device which can convert the motion into electricity which can be further used to charge our gadgets. One of its application is we can use our touch swipes on a smartphone to generate electricity and charge.
Sepulveda and his colleagues found that Nano Energy on a new film capable of turning the motion into electricity. The film is very much similar to piezoelectrics which generates a voltage when squeezed and pressed. But this film is different in terms of size and each time it is folded the voltage increases exponentially. Now if that increased voltage can be transformed to current it can completely eliminate the need of recharging our gadgets like touchscreen phones.
How it is developed?
In order to create that device, Sepulveda and his colleagues used different types of fabrication techniques and thin layer of silver, polypropylene ferroelectret, polyimide and charged particles on a silicon wafer, giving a very much feel of a sticker that could be peeled away from the chip. They conducted several tests on the device and found that a palm-sized sheet generates 50volts of power and powered up 20 LED lights.
On folding the film the voltage increased exponentially but according to Sepulveda only voltage is not enough, they need to add some tweaks so that it can be converted to energy. He and his team is trying to build up a film that can convert the motion energy into electrical energy. According to him at one day he would wear the device and go riding without worrying about charging its gadgets like phones as it would be charged by the device.
Source : http://www.livescience.com/57167-flexible-film-captures-energy-from-motion.html
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