ZhongLinWang
Latest
Nanogenerators produce electricity by squeezing your fingers together, while you dance
It's been a while since we last heard about nanogenerators -- you know, those insanely tiny fibers that could potentially be woven into your hoodie to juice up your smartphone. Dr. Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology has reported that he and his team of Einsteins constructed nanogenerators with enough energy to potentially power LCDs, LEDs and laser diodes by moving your various limbs. These micro-powerhouses -- strands of piezoelectric zinc oxide, 1 / 500 the width of a single hair strand -- can generate electrical charges when flexed or strained. Wang and his team of researchers shoved a collection of their nanogenerators into a chip 1 / 4 the size of a stamp, stacked five of them on top of one another and can pinch the stack between their fingers to generate the output of two standard AA batteries -- around 3 volts. Although it's not much, we're super excited at this point in development -- imagine how convenient to charge your phone in your pocket sans the bulky battery add-ons. And that's only one application of this technology. Yea, we know.
Medical devices could be powered by nanowire generators and the human heart
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology are getting to the heart of the matter, developing nanowire generators which could power medical devices inside a patient that are powered by the patient's own heart. The team -- led by Zhong Lin Wang --first demonstrated working nanowires back in 2005, and have since demo'd the wired generators being powered by a running hamster, tapping fingers, and piezoelectric solar cells. In the most recent and interesting turn of events Zhong and company have just demonstrated the nanowires functioning inside of a living animal (in this case, a rat). These zinc oxide nanogenerators could be ideally suited to as the power source for things like glucose level monitors and blood pressure in the somewhat near future. The ultimate goal, Zhong says, is to make what are essentially self-powered medical devices. Sounds a little creepy, if you ask us, but it's probably better than a hamster running in a wheel powering your pacemaker, right?
