If your T-Shirt is mobile CHARGER?
Is it possible to generate electricity through clothes?
Nowadays, many people find it impossible to envision living without their phones. Mobile phones are now an essential part of people’s lives, especially for independent contractors and other people who work remotely from home.
They are also beneficial for getting access to exclusive travel and leisure opportunities, for getting healthcare, for shopping, and even for showing identity proof.
What if you forget your cell phone charger and your phone battery dies?
You would probably sit there and wish your dead phone would come to life.
But
What if your T-Shirt or Shirt has turned out to be a phone charger? We feel as if we have got our life back, isn’t it? It sounds surreal but, this technology would hopefully be available soon, once the ongoing research and trials succeed.
Not only that, The LED bulbs, which are plugged into our homes can also be lit using the clothes, which you wore.
The researchers have recently developed a FABRIC, which can help in making this innovative idea into reality. What is this FABRIC? Let’s dive in.
Who has developed it?
The hunt for a fabric that can create electricity utilizing the energy produced by the movement of the body has been ongoing for many years. Few scientists have so far discovered a substance that can be used to make such cloth. The fabric’s efficiency starts to decline after just one wash, which is the largest disadvantage. Scientists from NTU Singapore solved the aforementioned issue.
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a stretchable, water-resistant “FABRIC” that converts the energy produced by bodily motion into electrical energy.
How did they develop it?
To create the prototype, the researchers first created a stretchable electrode by screen printing a “ink” made of silver and the rubber-like substance styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS), which is used in handlebar grips and teethers to make them more elastic and waterproof. Then,
This stretchable electrode is attached to a piece of nanofiber fabric that is primarily composed of two materials: lead-free perovskites, a promising material for solar cells and LEDs, and poly(vinylidene fluoride)-co-hexafluoropropylene (PVDFHPF), a polymer that generates an electrical charge when compressed, bent, or stretched.
How does it work?
The NTU team’s electricity-generating fabric is an energy-collecting technology that converts vibrations from even the slightest daily body motions into power.
The prototype fabric generates energy in two different ways: by piezoelectricity when it is squeezed or compressed, and via friction with other materials like skin or rubber gloves (triboelectric effect). Through the use of triboelectric and piezoelectric nanogenerators (TENGs and PENGs), mechanical energy from the environment (such as wind, rain, and tidal energy) and human motions (such as walking, running, clapping, and bending the elbow) can be harvested and transformed into electricity to power wearable technology.
While PENGs convert mechanical energy to electricity by exploiting the dipole moment through the deformation of piezoelectric materials, TENGs create electricity through a combined action of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction.
This prototype fabric can power tiny electronic devices like LEDs and commercial capacitors with 2.34 watts of electricity per square meter of surface area. Researchers also said that this cloth won’t have any negative consequences on body movements.
What happens if washed or folded?
A polymer that, when pressed or squeezed, transforms mechanical stress into electrical energy is an essential part of the fabric. To maintain it sturdy, flexible, and waterproof, it is also constructed with a base layer of elastic spandex that is merged with a rubber-like material.
The fabric’s ability to retain constant electrical output for up to five months while being washed, folded, and crumpled shows its potential for usage as a smart textile and wearable power source.
Uses
With the aid of this fabric, we can create smart clothing in the future. Mobile phones, smartwatches, and other wearable electronics may all be charged using the power produced by this cloth. As a result, there will be less need for alternative electricity sources. The sole of the shoes may also be made of this material.
My view
Firstly, big applause to the research team for making an effort to develop such fabric. I believe this innovation has both disadvantages and advantages. If someone is really in the need of using the phone in this globalized digital world, then it is useful as it will be their source to rely upon. For example, people who travel and explore places(for communication regarding accommodation or maps to move ahead).
On the other hand, we are witnessing a huge number of smartphone addiction complaints, especially among children and teenage people, I am scared that, this advancement in technology can increase their addiction.
Finally, I look at the positive aspects and encourage innovation by controlling its consequence side effects.
