Swedish scientists have created a conductive silk fiber that uses body heat to generate electricity. So will we see charging the phone directly in the pocket of the pants?
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden have developed a conductive silk fiber technology that can use body heat to produce electricity. These innovative fibers are coated with a special polymer that is not only conductive, but also flexible, allowing them to be used in a variety of textiles. The material works on the basis of the thermoelectric effect, where it uses the temperature difference between the user’s body and the surrounding air, thereby generating a current.
Unlike previous solutions using metal fibers, the new approach relies on a polymer that provides high conductivity and better physical properties. This makes textiles with conductive fibers more environmentally friendly and more comfortable for everyday use. The test samples even retained some of their conductivity after several washes, a step towards more practical wearable energy sources.
Nevertheless, scientists are cautious before commercial production – the performance is still sufficient for low-power devices, and in addition to increasing the generated voltage, an efficient way of mass production needs to be solved. Hand sewing, as used in the prototype, takes several days for a single sample, so inventing a simplification of this process is in order. The full scientific research is available in the journal Advanced Science.
Source: pctuning.cz
