This amazing fabric can generate electricity from sunlight and movement

Engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Chongqing University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a fabric that is capable of producing electricity from sunlight and from friction, including wind.

Getting power from both (or either) is a huge leap forward in lightweight, wearable power production.

Engineer, Zhong Lin Wang, from George Tech, explains "here, we present a foldable and sustainable power source by fabricating an all-solid hybrid power textile with economically viable materials and scalable fabrication technologies.  Based on lightweight and low-cost polymer fibres, the reported hybrid power textile introduces a new module fabrication strategy by weaving it in a staggered way on an industrial weaving machine via a shuttle-flying process."

They are experimenting with "arbitrary size and various weaving patterns" and finding success throughout.

Three examples of the textile at work, including "directly charging a cell phone (d) and continuously powering an electronic watch in a wearable manner (e)." Image: Nature Energy

 

Currently, someone walking in sunlight while wearing a 4x5cm piece of this cloth can generate about .5 mW of power.  Taking into account the friction created by movement (like hand shaking), one person could generate up to 2 volts per minute.

"It is worth noting that the hybrid power textile is not limited to wearable applications," Wang and co. write. "It can also act as a piece of flag, harvesting energy from sunlight and ambient wind blowing, and the delivered power is also capable of charging personal electronics as well as driving electrochemical reactions for self-powered water splitting. In addition, the hybrid power textile was also demonstrated to generate power from weak sunlight and wind from a moving car in a city location on a cloudy day, which also indicates its decent capability of working even in a harsh environment."

The study goes on to show that the materials are ready for industrial application.  We could be wearing these very, very soon.