February 14, 2008
Nanowires allow 'power dressing'
"Power dressing" may soon have a very different and literal meaning, reports the BBC.
"Scientists in the US have developed novel brush-like fibres that generate electrical energy from movement.
Weaving them into a material could allow designers to create "smart" clothes which harness body movement to power portable electronic gadgets.
Zhong Lin Wang and his colleagues at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta have made a yarn out of nanofibres that produce charge when they are rubbed against one another. Materials woven from these yarns could be used for self-powering clothes, shoes or biological implants such as pacemakers.
Writing in the journal Nature, the team say that the materials could also be used in tents or other structures to harness wind energy."
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