Talk about self-sustenance! I’m sure everyone out there would have faced this annoying problem of running out of charge on your mobiles or iPod when you are out traveling. No matter how well you plan, your mobile eventually runs out of charge at some point in your trip. This is especially true for someone like me who loves the outdoors a lot. So what do you do in such situations? Well, you obviously let your shirt and trousers do the charging for you! If Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology and his team have their way, then that would be true very soon.
It was a few months back I suppose that we covered about Solar Bikinis and I remember making a silly statement about how you could go to that gorgeous girl lying down on the beach and ask her if you could recharge there. Now she might well reply saying, “use your own”. The fiber-based nanogenerator is a simple and economical way to harvest energy from the physical movement. The microfiber generates electricity on its own by converting physical movement and mechanical energy in to electrical energy.
The new fabric has nanogenerator like structures inside it that take advantage of the semi conductive properties of zinc oxide nanowires. These tiny wires are 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair and are embedded into the fabric. These wires bend in to the surface of the fabric. So every time you make a movement the wires convert that energy in to electricity. Research has proved that it is not just static electricity but conventional electricity that can be used to charge your mobile. So each time you move around or are sitting in your car driving ahead fast, your shirt automatically recharges your mobile. The technology is indeed great and if it does materialize in to reality would solve some very annoying problems.
