Mar
29
Batteries vs. Generators or Both
March 29, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Tiny generators that could produce enough electricity from random, ambient vibrations to power a wristwatch, pacemaker or wireless sensor would offset a bit of lithium and stacked might replace some of those transformer blocks to recharge batteries. Khalil Najafi, chair of electrical and computer engineering and Tzeno Galchev, a doctoral student at the University of [...]
Mar
24
Hydrogen Fuel from Sound
March 24, 2010 | 3 Comments
Sound is energy is motion whether in gasses, fluids or through solid materials it could be something worth pursuit. A team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is on it with a new material made from crystals of zinc oxide that, when immersed in water, absorb vibrations and develop areas of strong negative and positive charge. [...]
Jul
31
Micro Power Is Getting Bigger and Smaller
July 31, 2009 | 3 Comments
Driven by the vision of our society one day being basically self-propelled, a team of University of Houston scientists has set out to both amplify and provoke that potential in materials known as piezoelectrics, which naturally produce electricity when literally subjected to strain. Engineers at Leeds in the U.K. are developing a way to capture [...]
