In this digital and portable world, most of us have to cope with our daily devices and the plethora of wall chargers that accompany them. Keeping your phone charged can be a pain; even a smart phone becomes nothing more than a paperweight once the battery runs out. How great it would be if our phone could stay charged up all day without ever having to think about it.
Researchers at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University have shown the way to make use of our own excess body heat to charge the tech devices by using new wearable fabric called Power Felt. The athletes, with their phones in their pockets, can charge their phones while they workout. They just need to get a pair of Power Felt running shorts for that.
How it works: Power Felt uses carbon nanotubes to turn body heat into electric current. It is basically capable of exploiting differences between an object’s heat and the room temperature to generate an electrical charge.
A tiny four-inch strip delivers small amount of power…just enough to turn on a microchip. However, in order to properly charge a mobile phone, the element will need to be about 10 x 40 inches.
Currently, researchers are working to make the Power Felt more efficient and cost-effective. Researchers are hopeful that the technology will be available within the next two to three years and, once they are successful, this technology will offer a convenient, eco-friendly power source.
