Small thread, large electricity

2008/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Energia berriztagarriak

A team from the Georgia Institute of Technology has managed to generate enough energy to supply power to an electronic device with a single special thread of four large microns and two hundred microns in length. Just carry this thread stuck in the sole of the shoes to generate energy, according to them.

The thread used is zinc oxide, a material with piezoelectric properties. The thread is capable of generating electricity if it supports a mechanical tension. In this case, we only have to bend the thread to generate electricity: if we took it stuck to the shoes, the thread would tilt while we walked.

What they have presented now is the improvement of an earlier research. A few months ago the same group explained that last March, in the magazine Elhuyar Zientzia eta Teknika, you could make clothes capable of generating energy. However, they had several problems introducing zinc oxide into the tissues of clothing and decided to go another way.