Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a fabric that can simultaneously harvest energy from both sunshine and motion. According to researchers, combining two types of electricity generation into one textile paves the way for developing garments that could provide their own source of energy to power devices such as smart phones or global positioning systems. To make the fabric, Wang’s team used a commercial textile machine to weave together solar cells constructed from lightweight polymer fibres with fibre-based triboelectric nanogenerators. Triboelectric nanogenerators use a combination of the triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction to generate small amount of electrical power from mechanical motion such as rotation, sliding or vibration. Wang envisions that the new fabric, which is 320 micrometres thick woven together with strands of wool, could be integrated into tents, curtains or wearable garments. “The fabric is highly flexible, breathable, light weight and adaptable to a range of uses,” Wang said.
Fibre-based triboelectric nanogenerators are said to capture the energy created when certain materials become electrically charged after they come into moving contact with a different material. For the sunlight-harvesting part of the fabric, Wang’s team used photoanodes made in a wire-shaped fashion that could be woven together with other fibres.
