Could we someday have a fabric that could power our cell phones and MP3 players? Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology hope so. Yong Qin, Xudong Wang and Zhong Lin Wang are developing a fabric embedded with piezoelectric zinc oxide nanowires to create a nanogenerator within our clothes. These minute generators could create electricity from our own body movements.
Their article, published in the February 13 edition of the journal Nature, describes how by coating half of the zinc oxide wires with gold the fabric’s embedded wires can then convert physical movement into electricity. Evidently, the gold plating enables the microscopic wires to act as an electrode so that when the “charged” wires contact the non-gold plated wire an electric current can run through the fabric. Their research has also demonstrated that the microscopic wires must be arranged similar to a bottle-brush as opposed to another type of alignment.
All is not perfect, however. Though the scientists have added a polymer layer to prevent the zinc oxide from wearing away, the research team must still figure out how prevent the zinc oxide from degrading when wet. It wouldn’t do to power your cell phone in clothes that cannot be laundered.
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Electricity can be dangerous. My nephew tried to stick a penny into a plug. Whoever said a penny doesn’t go far didn’t see him shoot across that floor. I told him he was grounded.