T-shirts from nanowire fabric can generate electricity

A team of US researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have demonstrated a material that generates electricity as it moves around. This nanowire fabric can be used in t-shirts and other clothes in the future to serve as a power-plant for our gadgets.

The fabric is created by coating kevlar strands with zinc oxide nanowires, protecting the bushy wires with a polymer, and adding gold to other fibers to act as a conductor. The piezoelectric power-generating action comes when the nanowires bend as two fibers rub together, creating electricity which flows along the gold fibers. Read more »