Slashdot Mirror
Georgia Tech Unveils Prototype Nanogenerator
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a working prototype nanogenerator capable of generating as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter of continuous direct current. The generators are green (to use), drawing power from natural motion in the surrounding environment. They are based on non-toxic chemicals and should be safe for use in biomechanical implants, but that's not their only potential use. From the article: "If you had a device like this in your shoes when you walked, you would be able to generate your own small current to power small electronics," Wang noted. "Anything that makes the nanowires move within the generator can be used for generating power. Very little force is required to move them."
Isn't this essentially his engine? Never thought that piece of science fiction would come to life.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
I needed one of these to power my iPod Femto for 3 seconds.
I can throw as many stones as I wish; my house is made of transparent aluminum.
I wonder if i could generate enough energy from my hands shaking to power my espresso machine. that would be useful :)
Quite a few years ago I had a watch powered by the exact same principle. Merely walking around would generate the power it needed to keep itself running. Unfortunately as I got more and more into computers I found the watch holding less and less of a charge, until eventually it stopped working altogether. If I had to choose between movement and a watch or computers I would have to say I'm glad there's a clock in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Couldn't this be used to make a self-powered Wii? Lord knows, I'm jumping around like a monkey when I play on that thing.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Somebody should attempt to coat the blades of a windmill with these.
Sigs are for Terrorists.
While it would be nice to make hay of other people's rudeness, I think there is only one appropriate response to someone who's driving around with music so loud (or bass-boosted) that it rattles the door panels of their vehicles: a rocket-propelled grenade aimed squarely up the glass-pack.
Think about it- at 4 watts per square centimeter. 40,500,000 sq cm to the acre. Find yourself a baren 1 acre field in the desert in Northern California that gets minor earthquakes all the time (and there are a few). Bury 40,500,000 of them, and attach them to charging massive capacitors, and put in a computerized matching inverter, and you've got a 162MW generating plant that has virtually NO environmental impact.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
It seems to me that this technology makes humans more powerful, but not better. If this technology would only fall into the hands of persons who are well-intentioned, well-informed, and intelligent, that would be a good thing. But I think technology in general empowers both good and evil acts. So I'm not sure that advancing technology is clear-cut progress.
Don't get me wrong - when I'm in the hospital, I certainly want advanced tech. And when my car crashes, or my home needs power, ditto. But some former citizens of Hiroshima an Nagasaki probably have somewhat mixed feelings on the issue.
Ok, so assume your wearing gloves on your hands. And your hands are (work with me here, this is a complete guess) about 15 centimeters long by 10 wide, thats 150 cubic centimeters. However, you need your hands in there, so only about 1/8th of that is useable space, so 18.75 cubic centimeters that you could put on gloves and not have a huge problem with. According to his 4 watts per cubic centimeter, we're looking at about the power of a lightbulb (75 watts), per hand. An espresso machine is 1100 watts.
You'd need basically an entire body-suit to power an espresso machine.
Ballmer to demo at CES: A laptop you can power by throwing it across the room!
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
.1 Richter microquakes, yes, of course. Sometimes going up to even 2 to 3 on the Richter scale- but just because pressure is building for a larger quake doesn't mean that all movement is stopped. The Mid Atlantic ridge, while useless for the above energy example, is a good example of perpetual quakes, it's litterally spreading (divergent) apart at 2.5cm/year. On second thought, that's a good example- more traditional methods of geothermal energy extraction from that specific ridge line allow Iceland to generate Geothermal energy, with one hot plant producing over 90MW of electricity, and geothermal energy being 13% of the energy production for the island.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
FTA: "...the generators produce a direct current output in the nano-Ampere range."
Summary could be a little more accurate, seems that in absolutely perfect conditions it could mathematically produce 4W. Who knows what the real world efficiency would be.
"...with optimization, their nanogenerator could produce as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter - based on a calculation for a single nanowire."
Still could be a very useful device, especially if it's durable enough and can be produced cheaply enough to integrate into clothing or maybe even larger areas.
When years ago I got a self-winding watch, I thought of putting such a mechanism in a backpack that the single-digit-set would be strapped into. Every day its spring could be discharged into some sort of energy reservoir. This would both harness kids' inexhaustible energy and slow them down a bit.
Now we have an unobtrusive direct-to-battery technology. Lets get some useful work out of those tykes!
As someone who's spent over a decade with piezo materials, let me very clear: BFD. This is not a new effect, this is not higher efficiency, it's not even new to be non-toxic. They just made it small. Granted, they used the ZnO to both generate and rectify the current, so that might make it useful (as the article states) for nano devices. But for larger stuff, run of the mill piezo materials offer higher D33, Q, etc. Some simple circuitry and you're off and running. Difficult? Nope! I built the generation half of one last month because I needed a quick hydrophone (thereby converting ultrasound to current). 2 minutes from overstock originally bought from on E-bay for generating ultrasound ($13 well spent).
What you are really seeing is publish or perish in action.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
Depending on how little motion they require, line streets with them on both sides (or even under the pavement) and power street lights with them. The possiblities for hilarity to ensure are jut boundless.
Absolutely- this too is a variation on a power application I've heard about annecdotally here at my employment. Seems back in the 1960s, as they were pushing I-5 through Southern Oregon, they had a problem in the Rogue Valley. They laid down the road bed, came back the next morning, and found the local farmer had blown it up. Turns out it was a bureaucratic mistake- they hadn't actually bothered to file condemnation papers on his field. When they went to court to do so, he asked for no compensation other than to: a. Put a tractor tunnel under the freeway and b. be allowed to lay the roadbed himself. They were puzzeled by this second idea- until they saw him put down the roadbed- instead of just the normal layer of gravel, he put down a thin layer of gravel, a copper pipe zigzaged with the ends on one side, and then another layer of gravel. He then allowed them to pave over the top. To this day, the local school, his farmhouse, and the city hall are warmed from blowing air through that pipe; the combination of the traffic and solar heat on the roadway keeps a pretty constant 80F coming out of the pipe at all times.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Very little force is required to move them.
Only about 4watts/cm2
My friend the principle of energy conservation told me that they are no more green to use than that which causes the motion in the surrounding environment (probably a little less).
Swedish plasma phys. PhD student; MSc EE; knows maths, programming, electronics; finance interest; seeks opportunities
Yea, and there are devices capable of generating electricity from just the wind, or sunlight, or tidal waves. But they are not competitive due to the high price.
What would be interesting in this article would be:
a) What would they cost compared to a NiMH battery?
b) How long would they last?
This is why medical applications is probably the are where this is most interesting. In medicine you often want very small long-lasting power sources that doesn't require surgery to replace. Don't expect to power your house with these things. It will almost certainly be orders of magnitude cheaper to just make sure your house is properly insulated (at least if you live in a country as cold as I do ).