Now, solar
nanotech-powered clothing
UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA
|
Can
revolutionise wearable technology, helping everyone from soldiers who now carry
heavy loads of batteries to a texting addicted teen, who could charge his
smartphone by simply slipping it in a pocket
Marty
McFly's self-lacing Nikes in Back to the Future Part II inspired a UCF
scientist, who has developed filaments that harvest and store the sun's energy,
and can be woven into textiles.
The
breakthrough would essentially turn jackets and other clothing into wearable,
solar-powered batteries that never need to be plugged in. It could one day
revolutionise wearable technology, helping everyone from soldiers who now carry
heavy loads of batteries to a texting-addicted teen who could charge his
smartphone by simply slipping it in a pocket.
“That
movie was the motivation.If you can develop self-charging clothes or textiles,
you can realise those cinematic fantasies, that's the cool thing,“ associate
professor Jayan Thomas, a nanotechnology scientist at the University of Central
Florida's NanoScience Technology Centre, said of the film released in 1989. The
research findings have been published in the academic journal Nature
Communications. Thomas already has been lauded for earlier ground-breaking
research.Last year, he received an “R&D 100 Award“, which is given to the
top inventions of the year worldwide, for his development of a cable that can
not only transmit energy like a normal cable but also store energy like a
battery.
He's also
working on semi-transparent solar cells that can be applied to windows,
allowing some light to pass through while also harvesting solar power. His new
work builds on that research.
“The idea
came to me: We make energy-storage devices and we make solar cells in the labs.
Why not combine these two devices together?“ Thomas said. Thomas, who holds
joint appointments in the College of Optics & Photonics and the Department
of Materials Science & Engineering, set out to do just that.
PROOF OF
CONCEPT
Taking it
further, he envisioned technology that could enable wearable tech. His research
team developed filaments in the form of copper ribbons that are thin, flexible
and lightweight. The ribbons have a solar cell on one side and energy-storing
layers on the other. Though more comfortable with advanced nanotechnology,
Thomas and his team then bought a small, tabletop loom. After another UCF
scientists taught them to use it, they wove the ribbons into a square of yarn.
The proof-of-concept
shows that the filaments could be laced throughout jackets or other outwear to
harvest and store energy to power phones, personal health sensors and other
tech gadgets. It's an advancement that overcomes the main shortcoming of solar
cells: The energy they produce must flow into the power grid or be stored in a
battery that limits their portability.
MAJOR
APPLICATIONS
“A major
application could be with our military,“ Thomas said. “When you think about our
soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan, they're walking in the sun. Some of them are
carrying more than 30 pounds of batteries on their bodies. It is hard for the
military to deliver batteries to these soldiers in this hostile environment. A
garment like this can harvest and store energy at the same time if sunlight is
available,“ Thomas added.
There are
a host of other potential uses, including electric cars that could generate and
store energy whenever they're in the sun. “That's the future.What we've done is
demonstrate that it can be made. It's going to be very useful for the general
public and the military and many other applications,“ Thomas said.
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