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Textiles That Harvest Energy And Store It

Wearable battery fibers developed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) may make an appearance at a fashion show near you.


( Researchers cut and assembled tiny solar cells
on thin, flexible circuit boards before sealing
them in a protective polymer to create a fiber-like
strand that was woven with nylon into a small textile.
)

“As demands for electronic textiles change, there is a need for smaller power sources that are reusable, durable, and stretchable,” stated Konstantinos Gerasopoulos, assistant program manager for physics, electronic materials and devices at APL and the lead investigator of this project.

“Our vision is to develop solar harvesting fibers that can convert sunlight to electricity and battery fibers that can store the generated electricity in the textile.”

The key to this progress is the development of poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVDF-HFP) separators. These allow the lamination of conventional battery electrodes using a heated rolling press as per the study.

(Via InterestingEngineering)

In his 2005 story Pushing Ice, Alastair Reynolds describes a remarkable fabric that can harvest energy from the movement of the wearer:

Liz Shen's computational needs were handled by her clothes and the kernels of Borderline Intelligence packed into her minimalist jewellery. The clothes and jewellery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements. The computational textiles exchanged data with the environment via rapid subliminal alterations to their colour patterning, too brief to be picked up by the human eye...

(Read more about computational textile)

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 5/28/2024)

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