Gain electrical powers by using Power Felt.
Renewable energy is all the rage. We’re all focused on developing great new ways to make our planet more eco-friendly before we destroy it for good, and along the way we’ve developed everything from panels that harness the power of the sun to giant wind farms out in the sea. But what if we could power things using our own bodies?
A group of researches based in Wakeforest University US asked themselves that very question. They sat down around a table loaded with biscuits, coffee and a dream, and the result of that project was to develop the rather amazing-sounding Power Felt.
This new material (not related in any way to normal felt) is actually constructed using nanotechnology. This form of science involves creating things out of tiny particles, which is exactly what the team used to create the Power Felt.
It’s made out of little carbon nanotubes, which somehow take on the appearance of fabric just like felt. But what’s the point of Power Felt? Here’s Professor Caroll, who worked on the project, to explain:
“If you grab one end of a bar of metal, the electrons that heat your hand become warm.
“As they warm, they seek out the cold spots, which would be the other end of the bar. So (the electrons go) rushing down to the other end of the bar.
“So I have an excess of electrons on one side, and a depletion of excess electrons underneath my hands, so I have a voltage between the two which is called the thermal voltage. And that’s what Power Felt generates.”
In simpler terms, this means that holding Power Felt uses your natural body heat to convert it straight into electricity, allowing the body heat you generate to essentially become a power source for a number of different items.
‘Kids absolutely love this stuff because you can put it all places and get power.” says Caroll.
“You run little motors and stuff. ... You can make little toys run. You can make little cars run around from a pad.
“Those are the fun things, because kids begin to imagine really wild places to start using this. ... they’re interested in how it works, but they’re more interested in what can they do with it.
‘”It seems to be a property of children: ‘Can I put it here, or can I make it do that?’ They kind of want to fiddle with it, and that’s great.
“There’s loads and loads of science behind this, but that’s not the fun part of Power Felt. The fun part of Power Felt is playing with it.”
Outside of the toy factory, it’s believed that Power Felt could be used to power absolutely everything from mobile phones to uniquely-designed sportswear that actually actively monitors performance by using body heat and electrical fields.
