Self powered devices to become a reality soon

If you were to choose between watching the much-awaited IPL match and charging your cell phone, what would you do? Don’t you worry; just keep the cell phone in your pocket, enjoy the match, and it will be charged! You could charge other devices like your tablet and laptop too. This could soon be a reality with the advent of nanoenergy harvesters.

Nanoenergy harvesters can convert mechanical and magnetic energy from surrounding vibrations into electricity.  This concept isn’t new. But since these are extremely costly and generate low voltage power; they haven’t become popular.

Researchers at the Central University of Kerala, Central University of Tamil Nadu, and Mahatma Gandhi University in Kerala, have fabricated a new nanoenergy harvester that can generate power sufficient to run a small device. In the future, nanoenergy harvesters could be improved to run a phone or even a laptop.

The new nanoenergy harvester is a single unit made of many copper iron oxide tubes, each tube wrapped in a material called KNN. All the tubes are embedded in an alumina membrane.

Cobalt Iron oxide, the material that makes the innermost part of the nanoenergy harvester can convert energy from a magnetic field into electricity. Each tube is 250nanometer wide and 4micrometer long. It is wrapped in a layer of KNN, which is made of Potassium, Sodium, and Niobium ethoxides. KNN is a material that can convert energy from mechanical pressure into electricity.

The whole unit (nanotubes embedded in alumina membrane) works together to produce electricity. The innermost cobalt iron oxide layer converts magnetic energy from nearby devices such as radio and television into electricity. This exerts mechanical pressure on the alumina membrane, which acts on the outermost KNN layer, which as a result, generates more electricity.

By scavenging energy from various magnetic energy sources, such as radio, television, and power transmission lines, it can supply power with ~400milli Volt, which is higher than other energy harvesters available till date.

 “We show application potential of (new nanoenergy harvester) as the next generation energy devices. It will be used to make self-powered portable devices with integrated nanoenergy harvesters as its power source”, say scientists CS Chitra Lekha, Ajith S Kumar, S Vivek, UP Mohammed Rasi, K Venkata Saravanan, K Nandakumar, and Swapna S Nair, who published their results in the journal Nanotechnology.

The method to synthesize these nanoenergy harvesters is cost-effective and highly energy efficient. Moreover it is lead-free, which makes it environment-friendly. Nanoenergy harvesters can harness energy from sources like radio frequencies that are otherwise lost unutilized, and hence, in the future, they could be used as additional sources of power. 

Published- India Science Wire

Reference: Nanotechnology 28 (5): 055402.