Nov
10
Generate Your Own Personal Power
November 10, 2020 | Leave a Comment
Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers have designed a kind of ‘tiny wind turbine’ that can scavenge wind energy from breezes as little as those created by a brisk walk. The method is a low-cost and efficient way of collecting light breezes as a micro-energy source. Most of the wind available on land is too gentle […]
Jun
13
Generate Power In Your Clothes
June 13, 2019 | Leave a Comment
Rice University researchers have produced triboelectric nanogenerators with laser-induced graphene. The flexible devices turn movement into electrical energy and could enable wearable, self-powered sensors and devices. Wearable devices that harvest energy from movement are not a new idea, but a material created at Rice University may make them more practical. The Rice lab of chemist […]
Feb
12
Researching the Source of Static Electricity
February 12, 2019 | Leave a Comment
A new University at Buffalo (UB) study suggests the cause of static electricity’s hair-raising phenomenon is tiny structural changes that occur at the surface of materials when they come into contact with each other. The finding could someday help technology companies create more sustainable and longer-lasting power sources for small electronic devices. Static electricity is […]
Jan
14
Tiny Triboelectric Generators Get an Upgrade
January 14, 2016 | Leave a Comment
Georgia Institute of Technology scientists announced a two-stage power management and storage system could dramatically improve the efficiency of triboelectric generators. Triboelectric generators harvest energy from irregular human motion such as walking, running or finger tapping. The system uses a small capacitor to capture alternating current generated by the biomechanical activity. When the first capacitor […]
Jun
30
Harvesting Energy From Tire Friction
June 30, 2015 | 1 Comment
University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers and a collaborator from China have developed a nanogenerator that harvests energy from a car tire’s rolling friction. Xudong Wang, the Harvey D. Spangler fellow and an associate professor of materials science and engineering at UW-Madison, and his PhD student Yanchao Mao have been working on this device for about a […]