Nanotechnology researchers at Georgia Tech are developing a power shirt able to generate electricity to power small electronic devices for soldiers in the field, hikers and others whose physical motion could be harnessed and converted to electrical energy.

Pairs of textile fibers covered with zinc oxide nanowires generate an electrical current. Combining current flow from many fiber pairs, woven into a shirt or jacket, enables the wearer's body movement to power a range of portable electronic devices. The fibers could also be woven into curtains, tents or other structures to capture energy from wind motion, sound vibration or other mechanical energy.

The nanogenerators developed by the research group take advantage of the unique coupled piezoelectric and semiconducting properties of zinc-oxide nanostructures that produce small electrical charges when they are flexed. After a year of development, the original nanogenerators – which are two by three millimeters square – can produce up to 800 nanoamperes at 20 millivolts.

The microfiber generators rely on the same principles, but are made from soft materials and designed to capture energy from low-frequency mechanical energy. They consist of DuPont Kevlar fibers on which zinc oxide nanowires have been grown radially and embedded in a polymer at their roots, creating what appear to be microscopic baby-bottle brushes with billions of bristles. One of the fibers in each pair is also coated with gold to serve as the electrode and to deflect the nanowire tips.

"The fiber-based nanogenerator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from physical movement," said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regents professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "If we can combine many of these fibers in double or triple layers in clothing, we could provide a flexible, foldable and wearable power source that, for example, would enable people to generate their own electrical current while walking.

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