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Power Technology

Transparent Paper Produces Power With Just a Touch 38

Posted by samzenpus from the power-up dept.
ckwu writes: A new transparent-paper device can generate electrical power from a user's touch. The paper energy-harvester could be used to make disposable, self-powered touch screens that fold; interactive light-up books; touch-sensitive skin for prosthetics; and security systems for art and documents, according to the researchers. The device is made out of nanopaper, a tangled mat made of nanometers-wide cellulose fibers that is transparent and smooth like plastic. The researchers deposit carbon nanotubes on the nanopaper to make a pair of electrodes, and then sandwich a polyethylene film in between. The generator works via electrostatic induction. Pressing one side of the device causes a change in the charge balance between the nanotube electrodes, resulting in a flow of current through the device. Releasing the pressure causes electrons to flow back, so repeated pressing and releasing creates continuous current. The researchers demonstrated that the generator could produce enough power when pressed to light up a small liquid-crystal display.
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Transparent Paper Produces Power With Just a Touch More

Transparent Paper Produces Power With Just a Touch

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  • This could be the material of the century, imagine exercise sweats that charge your smartphone.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      Too bad it never will. You cant get around the laws of thermodynamics. you will never get something to generate that kind of power from clothing flexing, not even if it was 99% efficient.

      • By the time this kind of material could be mass produced, let alone used as material in clothing, the amount of energy necessary to power a smart phone might have dropped considerably. It wasn't too long ago when you couldn't get more than a few hours worth of charge from a laptop and now we've got portables that can make it through a day of regular use on a single charge. Hell, by then we might not even be using phones anymore, or they'll be so unrecognizable that if we could see them now we wouldn't call

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dbIII ( 701233 )
        That's assuming the device it is charging is very power hungry.
        Consider how HP calculators used to plug into mains and have LED segments versus the current calculators that are solar and have LCD segments. If we only have milliwatts there's a lot more we can do with it than we used to.
      • Just dreaming out loud... I'll be back, I need to throw the dog PooP into MR. Fusion..
  • Really? Is that now the standard that we use to explain things? What does "smooth like plastic" even mean? While "smooth as glass" is a commonly accepted term (in spite of the obvious fact that not all glass is manufactured smooth), I think the idea that all or even most plastic is smooth is a concept that most people will reject. I have a lot of plastic in front of me as I type this. Some is glossy smooth, but the majority (by volume) has textured surfaces that are anything but smooth.
    • Exactly. We all know that standard for smoothness is a baby's bottom. They need to use the BB scale.

    • When they were talking about transparent paper, books, and plastic, I was imagining smooth cellulose acetate overhead transparencies. Though I guess using an obsolete projection technology as a reference might not be the best thing on /.

  • Disposable (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The paper energy-harvester could be used to make disposable, self-powered touch screens that fold

    Awesome, just what the world needs, more disposable shit.

    • Yeah. I get enough disposable shit from the world every fall, when the trees dump all their leaves in my yard. And during spring and summer when after I cut it to an acceptable length, that Falk grad just comes back.

      I've tried piling the leaves and grass up, along with things like the leftovers from my food and all the paper products I use, and it magically turns into dirt after a few months. I think it is the compost fairies and their workers, all those big, red works they send to sort thru the pile.

      You're

  • Press it, current flows one way. Release, current flows there other way.

    Net energy? Any guesses?

    • Ever heard of alternating current or diode bridge rectifiers?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      > Press it, current flows one way. Release, current flows there other way.
      > Net energy? Any guesses?

      It's > 0. Look at the wall to your electricity outlet. One way and back, 60 times per second. And yet your computer is getting energy.

      Now, the summary is poorly worded. Certainly one gets a current, and surely it will be available for a continued period... but it's not a "continuous current".

      It's alternate.

    • That is called Alternating Current

      Perhaps you have heard of it?

      It was big back in the 20th and 21th century, popularirzed by a man called Tesla, though he had help from Edison and an elephant.

  • will do that.

  • Land fills (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why the fuck do I want new technology that is disposable? Get your heads out of your asses!

  • This is how we power it... (Score:3)

    by Grog6 ( 85859 ) on Wednesday July 15, 2015 @10:30PM (#50122067)

    Neon Condoms, Neon fleshlights, Neon Dildos... all will be very popular, I'm sure. :)

    If we pave the streets with it, how much power can we get?

  • And people on Youtube have also already lit up LED's using piezoelectric generators as well.
  • Neat, but why call it paper? No part of this is paper.

    • To quote the summary: "The device is made out of nanopaper, a tangled mat made of nanometers-wide cellulose fibers". You should find that the non-nano kind is also made of cellulose fibers, so no surprise there.

      Which does not negate the non-paper parts, i.e. carbon nanotubes and the polyethylene film (plastic) sandwiched between the paper layers.....

  • If you can brace one structure and the other structure vibrates then one would have continuous power. I can also see this on wheels for continuous current.

    Whatever happened to that miracle device years back that also featured carbon nanotubes... it was suppose to harvest heat. Problem was they needed to figure out how to build micro rectifiers for the nanotubes.

  • OK so a drummer or a windmill could strike this substance with a drum stick and power would flow. Really? How about we put bumps in the road and coat them with this paper. Every time a car's wheel touches the paper we get power. We could even coat statues in the park with this stuff and every time a pigeon lands we will get power. Or how about big sheets of this paper and rain drops striking it?
  • Imagine having it blowing in the wind. Or on anything that vibrates. Or on roads or in clothes. Very fascinating.

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