Fabric Generates Electricity When Stretched or Deformed Even When Wet
Chalmers researchers Anja Lund and Christian Müller have developed a woven fabric that generates electricity when it is stretched or exposed to pressure. The fabric can currently generate enough power to light an LED, send wireless signals or drive small electric units such as a pocket calculator or a digital watch.
Anja Lund with a piece of the electric textile in the shoulder strap of a bag (the lighter-coloured part). To the right: a LED that flashes because electricity is generated when the textile is stretched.
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology
Credit: Chalmers University of Technology
The piezoelectric yarn is made up of twenty-four fibres, each as thin as a strand of hair. When the fibres are sufficiently moist they become enclosed in liquid and the yarn becomes more efficient, since this improves the electrical contact between the fibres. The technology is based on previous studies by the researchers in which they developed the piezoelectric fibres, to which they have now added a further dimension.
“The piezoelectric fibres consist of a piezoelectric shell around an electrically conducting core,” Lund says. “The piezoelectric yarn in combination with a commercial conducting yarn constitute an electric circuit connected in series.”
Previous work by the researchers on piezoelectric textiles has so far mainly focused on sensors and their ability to generate electric signals through pressure sensitivity. Using the energy to continuously drive electronic components is unique.
“Woven textiles from piezoelectric yarns makes the technology easily accessible and it could be useful in everyday life. It’s also possible to add more materials to the weave or to use it as a layer in a multi-layer product. It requires some modification, but it’s possible,” Lund says.
When the textile is stretched or exposed to pressure, the deformation of the piezoelectric fibres (pink) causes a reorganisation of the charge distribution, thus generating an electrical voltage. The electrically conducting yarn (blue) is required to form a closed circuit. A piezoelectric yarn is made up of 24 fibres as thin as a hair, and each fibre has an electrically conducting core (black).
The textile consists of piezoelectric yarns woven together with electrically conducting yarns. A piezoelectric yarn is made up of 24 fibres each as thin as a strand of hair, with each fibre having an electrically conducting core surrounded by an insulating and piezoelectric polymer. During manufacture the fabric is exposed to a high electric field, which causes positive and negative charges in the polymer to be separated in an orderly manner. When the textile is then stretched or exposed to pressure, the deformation of the fibres causes a reorganisation of the charge distribution, thus generating an electrical voltage. The electrically conducting yarn is required to form a closed circuit through which an electric current can flow.
More about: The piezoelectric effect
The piezoelectric effect allows a material to generate an electrical voltage when it is exposed to pressure or stretching. Piezoelectricity is a result of a displacement of the charge distribution in the material due to deformation, and can be found in biological materials such as bone, protein and DNA and also in other types of materials such as ceramics, plastics and textiles.
More about: The research
The paper Energy harvesting textiles for a rainy day: woven piezoelectrics based on melt-spun PVDF microfibres with a conducting core is published in the Nature Partner journal Flexible Electronics 22 March.
The research has been funded by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF), the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and the European Research Council (ERC).
Johanna Wilde, Chalmers University of Technology
Anja Lund, PhD, Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Source: http://www.ineffableisland.com/2018/03/fabric-generates-electricity-when.html
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