By Doug Gross, CNN
What if you could power up your smartphone with just a brisk walk?
That’s the promise of Power Felt, a new creation of nanotechnology researchers at Wake Forest University.
It’s a fabric, made up of tiny carbon nanotubes locked in flexible plastic fibers, that uses temperature differences to create a charge.
So, for example, you could slap a strip of it onto the back of your phone and hold it in your hand or stick it in your pocket while you walked. Since your body heat would be higher than the temperature outside, it would create one of those differentials and the felt would siphon off that extra heat, turning it into electrical power.
“Heat is all around you,” said David Carroll, Director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. “Heat differentials are everywhere.”
He says all the energy that heat generates is wasted without a way to harness and move it. Enter Power Felt.
Carroll’s research is featured in the current issue of NanoLetters, a leading nanotechnology journal. He says the product isn’t quite ready for market, but that the center is currently courting investors to help get it there.
The felt probably isn’t ready to charge a phone all the way. But a regular day’s activity could add an hour or so to its battery life, Carroll said.
“If you’re at the airport and your phone’s dead and you’re trying to get your wife on the phone to come get you, what you’re concerned about is being able to make that one extra call,” he said.
Other uses could include using the heat inside a car to power its battery, lining solar panels to help them soak in even more of the sun’s rays, or lining emergency kits to power flashlights, radios and other tools.
When reversed, the nanotubes can also move heat away, producing a cooling effect that could be helpful for medical care.
“We’re going to go further and further with this,” Carroll said.
The practice of taking research from a university lab and trying to market it is one that’s relatively recent, he said. But more and more, Carroll said he’s seeing academic work moving from the theoretical to the practical without the new technology needing to change hands.
“Science can make a difference; science can solve stuff,” he said. “It’s not that basic science has goine away, but it is fascinating when you get into this kind of development of technology, and I see more and more of that happening.”
Each week, CNN's "The Next List" profiles innovators, visionaries and agents of change. They’re not household names just yet, but they’re movers and shakers in their own worlds. We’re introducing them to you because these individuals are steadily mapping the course to the future with their new ideas.
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Cool, lets cover all of our fat ed kids with this stuff and they walk around and keep their tweeting texting obsessions all charged up and lose weight. But seriously, I would not mind this stuff. Living out in the middle of nowhere. If power goes out and my cell phone is dead, it's a very long drive to the nearest pay phone.
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I got it, let's use people as batteries!
Works on some of the same principles that a Sterling Engine uses where a difference in temperatures can drive a piston which in turn drives a generator and produces electrical current. Where the temperature is higher, gas/liquids/anything expands. Where the temperature is lower, gas/liquids/anything contracts. Applying these physics a Sterling engine uses the expansion and contraction of a liquid (water) as a piston that turns a drive shaft. It requires no other external energy source to work such as electricity, muscle power, etc. You can build a sterling engine by just using the difference in temperature of the cool underground and the surface heat from the sun. Google 'Sterling Engine.' It's quite remarkable and you have to wonder why this isn't used more.
It's actually almost entirely unrelated to a Stirling engine. In fact the only similarity is that they both use temperature differentials to generate other forms of energy. This technology utilizes the thermoelectric effect. The devices that utilize this effect are commonly known as peltier elements. This is just a very thin version of one. The larger one are often used for cooling high-performance computer CPUs. Also why would you use thermal energy to generate mechanical energy to generate electrical energy? Why not just skip the middle man?
Jun11Yekralc17 I've got most of it down, great tutorial Kina Just the piikcng on the D, do you pluck the 4th, 3rd and 2nd strings, or 4th, 2nd and 1st? It looks like you're plucking the 3rd but the other sounds more accurate, or maybe my guitar's just out of tune
sounds good. anyone know when this will be for sale anywhere? don't have an iPhone but should be able to work for an iPod touch right?
Sparky Sanchez!
So when do we develop this into something I can put on my car to power it?
Its not actually heat that generates power.. It is heat flow from hotter to colder. I don't think this will be of much use right now for people that have access to a power outlet – however, it could be very useful for someone – like a backpacker – who does not.
Or during a disaster when the power grid is down.
Thanks Bryant I did not know this. It is always nice to catch up on the Church History. I also find it iirteestnng that two future Presidents of the Church were with Joseph when he was martyred too.
In players crtaee a character and adventure through the , missions, blowing things up and , bullets, to name but a few things. Generally , if you've seen it in a matrix film chances are you can do it in the game. This is excellent news for the vast mob of people who have always wanted to experience the matrix and do their part in helping the people of Zion. Or even for those people who were secretly sympathetic to the Machines, or those who found the Merovingian charming and were secretly rooting for his Exiles throughout the film.
We at http://www.turkishjobcentre.co.uk think this is a good idea, im sure this will be the next big thing after slice bread
Dont you mean Naan Bread?
So he is making magic? Awesome!
"science can solve stuff"
So this article is saying that fat, sweaty people are responsible for global warming?
Couldn't resist. Seriously though, this looks really promising. Hopefully it can take off.
Clothes that generate an electrical charge to power personal electronics are already in development for the army in the UK, though I believe they are based on much cheaper, much simpler, and much more market-ready technology.
Like AAA Duracells?
Welcome aboard copper top.
Put it on IPad to cool it down!
Its a good idea from the developers and i hope that it will be sucessful. But how many time will it happen and when will be avaiable to people from Brazil? Hugs!
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A bit late with this idea as populations especially city dwellers walk less and less
Actually it may even work out better. There is substantial heat generated by a couch potato. Put a phone in your butt crack and that phone will charge in no time.
This would be good for America; the number of obese people would diminish.
Nah, we'd just pay someone to walk aorund and charge it for us.
And, if someone is having a heart attack, you can just throw water on their shirt to revive them with a shock.
Good idea! A wearable AED! I can see sitting next to someone on a bus and hearing "stand by, shock delivered".
Upps, hade te4nkt skriva mer..Iom att det ste5r opiotnal antar jag att man me5ste kf6pa ne5n extra moje4ng ff6r att det ska funka med IR.Men vem vet. Den har inte sle4ppts e4nnu, se5 de kan fortfarande e4ndra sig.