Charging Cell Phone Using T-Shirts
- 12 years ago
Charging Cell Phone Using T-Shirts - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
Researchers from the University of South Carolina have developed a t-shirt made of hybrid fabrics that has the ability to store electricity that can then be used to charge your cell phone.
Cotton is the most common natural fiber used for making textiles and clothes, and using a normal cotton t-shirt, the scientists soaked it in fluoride, dried and baked it in an oven at high temperature without oxygen to prevent combustion, turning the cotton fibers into activated carbon, which is a capacitor for storing energy. To make the shirt capable of storing even more energy, the scientists coated the carbon textile with a nanometer of manganese oxide. Amazingly, the storage power of the textile was not lessened by more than 5 percent even after thousands of recharge cycles.
A professor of mechanical engineering at the University of South Carolina came up with the idea because future smart phone and laptop designs that are flexible enough to roll up will need a more portable charging system. He said: "Previous methods used oil or environmentally unfriendly chemicals as starting materials. Those processes are complicated and produce harmful side products. Our method is a very inexpensive, green process."
Researchers from the University of South Carolina have developed a t-shirt made of hybrid fabrics that has the ability to store electricity that can then be used to charge your cell phone.
Cotton is the most common natural fiber used for making textiles and clothes, and using a normal cotton t-shirt, the scientists soaked it in fluoride, dried and baked it in an oven at high temperature without oxygen to prevent combustion, turning the cotton fibers into activated carbon, which is a capacitor for storing energy. To make the shirt capable of storing even more energy, the scientists coated the carbon textile with a nanometer of manganese oxide. Amazingly, the storage power of the textile was not lessened by more than 5 percent even after thousands of recharge cycles.
A professor of mechanical engineering at the University of South Carolina came up with the idea because future smart phone and laptop designs that are flexible enough to roll up will need a more portable charging system. He said: "Previous methods used oil or environmentally unfriendly chemicals as starting materials. Those processes are complicated and produce harmful side products. Our method is a very inexpensive, green process."