Maybe one day you’ll charge a cell phone in your armpit
Tired of reaching into a purse or pocket for your cell phone, only to find it has enough juice for just one call?
Well, scientists may have found something to end that power shortage: body heat.
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy and the University of California at Berkeley say recent findings point to a way of making silicon into a better thermal conductor for turning even small amounts of heat into electricity.
The secret, they say, lies in nanowires, or microscopic strands of silicon. Arranged and bent in a particular way, they channel heat energy far more efficiently than current designs for thermoconductors.
With improved efficiency comes better energy conversion, to the point that even the temperatures generated by body heat could produce enough electricity to charge the batteries in small technology.
Ideally, this finding could lead to special clothing and other wearable materials that produce electrical current for batteries in cell phones and handheld computers, or power the devices themselves.
One small problem: The finding baffles the researchers.
“While we cannot say exactly why it works, we can say that the technique does work,” explained project engineer Arun Majumdar, in the technical site TG Daily. The research appears in greater detail in the journal Nature.
So, perhaps it’s too early to hope for cell phones that charge simply by sticking them in your armpit. Then again, if you think about it, maybe that’s a good thing.
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[…] Maybe one day you ll charge a cell phone in your armpitSt. Louis Post-Dispatch - Ideally, this finding could lead to special clothing and other wearable materials that produce electrical current for batteries in cell phones and handheld computers, or power the devices themselves. One small problem: The finding baffles the … […]
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