We close out this month with clothes – though these clothes are also high-tech batteries powered by our movements.
We’ve talked before about projects that turn the energy humans put out to additional uses, like the device that generates wind power when a person goes for a walk, or the nightclub that uses the heat generated by dancers to keep the place warm.
Well, why not make it so that our clothes can gather energy while we go about our day?
That’s the basic idea behind the project out of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
But, as Popular Mechanics reports, there’s more to the story.
Instead of embedding the standard wires and circuits into fabric, they used a composite that includes nanofibers and a substance that’s similar to that foam on bike handles.
This makes the energy-collecting system a lot more durable.
After all, a battery shirt isn’t much use if you can’t wash it or fold it.
In fact, with this combination of materials, you get electrical charges because you fold it or stretch it.
The test material generated over 2 watts of power per square meter of fabric, which could power the devices a lot of us carry around every day.
The scientists have shown that it works, but their test fabric was only 12 square centimeters.
That’s probably not enough to call clothing yet, unless you’ve got a pet hamster or something that really wants to generate some clean energy.
If I said your shirt was trash, you probably wouldn’t be too thrilled.
Unless I was talking about Vollebak’s new Garbage t-shirt.
It’s 50 percent recycled cotton and nearly all the rest is recycled plastic bottles.
Not exactly a throwaway design, right?
Scientists Found a Way to Turn Your Body Into a Battery … With Your Clothes (Popular Mechanics)
This Shirt Is Made From Garbage (Urbandaddy)
