American scientists have created the first flexible and flat fabric capable of converting mechanical fluctuations into electricity or producing sound, paving the path for creating the first "talking" newspapers, "smart" rooms or clothes who can acquire energy from motion.

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"Imagine a newspaper, where the sheets are microphones and loudspeakers. You could essentially have a voice-activated newspaper that talks back to you. In fact, a room can be created that can communicate with the reader, listen to him, and answer his questions. In the future, our material can replace ordinary speakers, "says Nelson Sepúlveda of the University of Michigan.

Over the last decade, scientists have developed a variety of technologies to produce fully or partially transparent displays and microelectronics. For example, in July 2011, US physicists presented a transparent lithium-ion batteries, and in November the same year, contact lenses with a built-in display. In addition, in recent years scientists have created transparent graphene transistors.

Last year, Sepúlveda and his colleagues developed the flexible FENG nanomaterial, which, as originally thought, could become one of the main sources of power for flexible electronics. By incorporating nanoparticles of silicon dioxide and silver nanoparticulate polymer film, scientists have succeeded in creating an electric generator that converts mechanical energy into electricity. If such a thin fabric is embedded in the garments, then man will produce electricity just by wearing it.

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“What I foresee, relatively soon, is the capability of not having to charge your cell phone for an entire week, for example, because that energy will be produced by your movement,” said Sepúlveda, whose research is funded by the National Science Foundation.

Physicists have found that this material can also be used for opposite purposes - the transformation of electricity into mechanical oscillations or sound reproduction. In an experiment they made a sound speaker from a school flag. Similar materials, can also be used for other purposes - noise suppression, hazard warning systems and other things where flexibility, mechanical reliability and low power consumption are required. - Source

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