Why Energy-Harvesting Clothes Will Be Such a Huge Deal
Newfangled fabrics can mop up energy that otherwise would be wasted.
Clothing today is mostly about covering up. In the future, it might also be about powering up — literally.
Researchers across the country are working to develop fabrics that harvest energy from your body movements and use it to provide a bit of extra juice for your cellphone or a fitness tracker — or maybe to change the color or pattern of the fabric itself. “Something that’s kind of snazzy,” says Dr. Cary Pint, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee and a leading researcher in the field.
One group of researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas has developed an energy-harvesting yarn made of carbon nanotubes, hollow cylinders 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. The tubes are bound into larger yarns and twisted so much that they coil. Experiments show that when these tightly coiled “twistron” yarns are placed side by side and then stretched, they generate a tiny electrical current. – Why Energy-Harvesting Clothes Will Be Such a Huge Deal – Aug.30.2017 https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/why-energy-harvesting-clothes-will-be-such-huge-deal-ncna797501?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma?cid=sm_npd_nn_fb_mc_170831 via NBC News
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/why-energy-harvesting-clothes-will-be-such-huge-deal-ncna797501?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma