Flexible nanogenerator could rival solar panels

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This technology aims to stimulate new activities in the field of sustainable medical technologies, with a particular focus on industrial scalability.

Scientists at the Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) at the University of Surrey have developed new nanotechnology that could enable everyday movements, such as a morning run, to generate enough electricity to power wearable devices. The technology involves highly energy-efficient, flexible nanogenerators that have demonstrated a 140-fold increase in power density compared to conventional nanogenerators. This advance has the potential to create nanodevices with performance comparable to modern solar cells. The new devices could convert small amounts of everyday mechanical energy, such as movement, into much larger amounts of electrical energy.

A traditional nanogenerator can produce 10 milliwatts of power, but this new technology can increase that to more than 1,000 milliwatts. This makes the technology suitable for a variety of energy-harvesting applications. The nanogenerator works by using a charge-regeneration effect. Instead of a single electrode transferring energy, each component in the system collects a charge, amplifies it, and then transfers it further, greatly increasing the total energy harvested. The team highlighted the potential for capturing energy from everyday movements, such as mechanical vibrations or ocean waves. The nanogenerator was tuned using a laser technique that allows it to be scaled up for production and further increases energy efficiency.

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The technology is a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that captures energy from simple, everyday movements using materials that become electrically charged upon contact and separation, similar to static electricity. They announced plans to launch a company focused on self-powered healthcare sensors using this triboelectric technology. They also emphasized the importance of local green energy solutions as the number of IoT devices is expected to exceed 50 billion. These nanogenerators could offer a sustainable solution for powering small devices, running smart systems and solving global challenges.