新闻动态
NEWS
Location:Chinese Academy of Sciences > NEWS  > Graphene Graphene

Graphene composite provides wireless power at your fingertips

Come: Chinese Academy of Sciences    Date: 2017-12-22 13:25:21


 Recently developed triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) not only harness waste mechanical energy from the environment, but can wirelessly transmit energy and signals too. By building on fundamental crystal symmetry principles, researchers at Clemson University in the US have designed a graphene nanocomposite and incorporated it into TENGs that provides voltages great enough to wirelessly transmit the harvested energy to remote devices. The wireless TENGs realise a technology dream first envisioned by Nikola Tesla more than a hundred years ago and provide a potentially powerful contribution to the future Internet of Things.

Most marvellous method to transmit power universally  made headlines back in 1897, and led to the initial construction of The Famous Tesla Tower in Long Island, New York – a 187 foot behemoth topped by a giant sphere 68 feet in diameter that was never finally completed. One hundred and twenty years later, the research team at the Clemson Nanomaterials Institute has now realised a new wireless power transmission device, beyond Tesla model, from a 3D printed nanocomposite of graphene and polylactic acid. The device – the first renewable energy generator capable of wireless transmission – can generate electric fields of 2400 V from a tap of the fingers, and can transmit binary code over 3 metres.

The power of symmetry

In line with the eco-friendly sustainability motivations of developing renewable energy sources, the Clemson researchers were keen to identify a material that was earth-abundant, biodegradable and recyclable. The tribo- or piezoelectric properties of a material are determined by the crystallographic symmetry of the material, and vanish when the crystal lattice has a centre of symmetry. However, the Clemson research team built on previous work by researchers in Japan showing they could remove the centre of symmetry of a biopolymer by adding polarizing molecules to asymmetric carbon atoms in its chemical structure.

Polylactic acid has many of the material attributes the researchers were looking for – it is plant- derived and biodegradable, and contains two asymmetric carbon atoms. However, its electrical resistance is too high for TENG devices, so the researchers used graphene as a filler to produce a nanocomposite that they could combine with the highly electronegative polymer Teflon in 3D-printed wireless TENGs.

We were not surprised by the high voltage generation, but we were awed at the ability to transmit and receive wireless signals without any interference from the surrounding environment, such as WiFi, mobile phones, power outlets, etc,explain Podila and his colleagues. They demonstrated the energy harvesting and transmission capabilities of their device on a range of domestic appliances including smart-tint windows, photoframes, LED displays and a call bell/security alarm.

< Previous Inkjet-printed graphene makes good st...Graphene transistor goes magnetoelectric Next >


Tel:+86-28-85241016,+86-28-85236765    Fax:+86-28-85215069,+86-28-85223978    E-mail:carbon@cioc.ac.cn,times@cioc.ac.cn,nano@cioc.ac.cn
QQ:800069832    Technical Support ac57.com
Copyright © Chengdu Organic Chemicals Co. Ltd., Chinese Academy of Sciences 2003-2024. manage 蜀ICP备05020035号-3