LinkNotes: Nanogenerators to Charge Gadgets

2009-03-28

Nanogenerators to Charge Gadgets

Clipped from: YouTube - Power shirt reported by Fox News

Power shirt reported by Fox News

Clipped from: New nanogenerator may charge iPods and cell phones with a wave of the hand (3/28/2009)

New nanogenerator may charge iPods and cell phones with a wave of the hand

Imagine if all you had to do to charge your iPod or your BlackBerry was to wave your hand, or stretch your arm, or take a walk? You could say goodbye to batteries and never have to plug those devices into a power source again.

In research presented here today at the American Chemical Society's 237th National Meeting, scientists from Georgia describe technology that converts mechanical energy from body movements or even the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that can be used to power a broad range of electronic devices without using batteries.

Pictured is a schematic illustration shows the microfiber-nanowire hybrid nanogenerator, which is the basis of using fabrics for generating electricity. - Professor. Z. L. Wang and Dr. X. D. Wang, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Clipped from: The next not-so-big thing: Nanogenerators: Scientific American Blog

The next not-so-big thing: Nanogenerators

Wang's nanogenerator consists of an array of vertically aligned zinc oxide nanowires (each about one micron long) standing about a half-micron apart on a flat piece of gallium arsenide, sapphire or a flexible polymer substrate. On top of that nanowire forest, Wang and his colleagues lowered a tiny plate containing thousands of silicon electrodes until they were touching the tips of the nanowires (sandwiching these wires between the substrate and the electrode plate). When the plate—which is wavy like a piece of corrugated cardboard—is pressed down on the wires, this flexing produces small electrical charges. "The elastic bending of the zinc oxide nanowires is a major advantage," Wang says. Carbon nanotubes, for example, are much less flexible.

Clipped from: Zhong Lin (ZL) Wang's Nanoscience and Nanotechnology group