Nanogenerator provides continuous power by harvesting energy from the environment

User rating: 4.6 / 5 after 130 vote(s)

Close-up image shows a prototype direct-current nanogenerator fabricated by Georgia Tech researchers using an array of zinc oxide nanowires. Credit: Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek
Close-up image shows a prototype direct-current nanogenerator fabricated by Georgia Tech researchers using an array of zinc oxide nanowires. Credit: Georgia Tech Photo: Gary Meek

Researchers have demonstrated a prototype nanometer-scale generator that produces continuous direct-current electricity by harvesting mechanical energy from such environmental sources as ultrasonic waves, mechanical vibration or blood flow.


Full story »

All News summaries from Nanotechnology news
All News summaries for April 05, 2007

Nanoparticles Detect Telomerase Activity

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Telomerase, an enzyme that prevents chromosomes from shortening when they divide, is widely suspected of playing a key role in making cancer cells immortal. Though researchers have developed a variety of methods for measuring ...

Material may help autos turn heat into electricity

Jul 24, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Researchers have invented a new material that will make cars even more efficient, by converting heat wasted through engine exhaust into electricity. In the current issue of the journal Science, they describe a material ...

'Nanonet' circuits closer to making flexible electronics reality

Jul 23, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in producing transistors from networks of carbon nanotubes, a technology that could make it possible to print circuits on plastic sheets for applications including ...

Nanoparticle Research Points to Energy Savings

Jul 23, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
(PhysOrg.com) -- Adding just the right dash of nanoparticles to standard mixes of lubricants and refrigerants could yield the equivalent of an energy-saving chill pill for factories, hospitals, ships, and ...

Artificial Lotus Effect: Carbon nanotubes with nanoscopic paraffin coating form superhydrophobic, self-cleaning surfaces

Jul 23, 2008 | User rating: not rated yet
Never wash your car again? Never clean your windows? These may well become reality if it becomes possible to produce the right coatings—coatings that imitate the self-cleaning effect of the lotus blossom.