Scientists have developed technology that can turn footsteps into electricity, says an article published on guardian website.
Hi-tech wooden flooring
By tapping into an unexpected energy source, wooden flooring, researchers from Switzerland have developed an energy-harvesting device that uses wood with a combination of a silicone coating and embedded nanocrystals to produce enough energy to power LED lightbulbs and small electronics.
This device, called a nanogenerator, is based on sandwiching two pieces of wood between electrodes.
Triboelectric effect
The wood pieces become electrically charged owing to contact and separation when stepped on via a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect.
This effect occurs when electrons can transfer from one object to another, akin to the static electricity produced when you rub a balloon on your hair for a few seconds.
If a material is tribo-positive it tends to lose electrons, and if it is tribo-negative it tends to attract electrons, said the senior study author, Guido Panzarasa, a group leader in the professorship of wood materials science located at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology Dübendorf.
Wood, a terrible triboelectric material
“Wood doesn’t have a strong tendency to lose nor attract electrons. As such, wood is a terrible triboelectric material, but wood is an excellent building material,” he said, noting that it is also beneficial given the material is a natural and renewable resource that also stores carbon dioxide.
To boost wood’s triboelectric properties, the researchers coated one piece of it with a common silicone that gains electrons upon contact, while the other piece was embellished with nanocrystals that have a tendency to lose electrons.
After testing different types of wood, they found that radially cut spruce – a common wood for construction in Europe – generated 80 times more electricity than natural wood.
Lit up a lightbulb
Using a wood floor prototype with a surface area slightly smaller than an A4 piece of paper produced enough energy to drive household LED lamps and small electronic devices such as calculators, the researchers found.
They successfully lit up a lightbulb with the prototype when a human adult walked upon it, according to the paper published in the journal Matter.
“Imagining making a floor with these kinds of devices, the amount of energy that could be produced by people just walking,” said Panzarasa.
“Our focus was to demonstrate the possibility of modifying wood with relatively environmentally friendly procedures to make it triboelectric. Spruce is cheap and available and has favourable mechanical properties.”
Summary
- Scientists have developed technology that can turn footsteps into electricity.
- By tapping into an unexpected energy source, wooden flooring, researchers from Switzerland have developed an energy harvesting device.
- The wood pieces become electrically charged owing to contact and separation when stepped on via a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect.
- Our focus was to demonstrate the possibility of modifying wood with relatively environmentally friendly procedures to make it triboelectric.
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Source: guardian
