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Monday, April 09, 2007

"ENERGY: Nanogenerator harvests power from waves"

Opportunities for harvesting energy from the environment—for instance from vibrations—to power small electronic devices or to recharge batteries has prompted more than a dozen startups to create microsized power generators. Now even smaller, nanoscale generators have been demonstrated to produce electrical power from vibrations.
Georgia Institute of Technology researcher Zhong Lin Wang last year demonstrated that zinc oxide nanowires produce current when flexed with an atomic-force microscope. Now Wang has harnessed that nanogenerator effect in an array of nanowires that could produce as much as 4 watts/cubic centimeter.
Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=198900097