The human body is one big energy factory. Calories go in and they power our organs and muscles, generating excess heat. Simply going for a walk could generate 163 watts of power, but the big challenge is working out how to turn this into usable energy.
Scientists are exploring lots of innovative ways to harness human power, and one method involves piezoelectricity, which can be produced from the pressure applied to a surface through motions such as walking.
When pressure is applied to an object containing atoms or molecules arranged in a very orderly way, also known as crystals, the charges are forced out of balance. The compressed side gains a positive charge while the opposite develops a negative charge, and when the pressure is relieved an electric current flows between them, which can be stored and used as a power source. Although this is proven to work, it only generates a very small amount of electricity, unfortunately insufficient for powering most electronic devices.
Scientists have also uncovered a way to generate electricity from clothes. Using nylon fibres, a group of researchers from the University of Bath, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Germany, and the University of Coimbra in Portugal have made a breakthrough. Scientists have been aware of the piezoelectric properties of nylon since the late 1900s, but until November 2020, the potential of its ability to generate electricity were not realised. In its raw form, nylon is a white powder that can be incorporated into a whole host of other products, like packaging and clothing, but on its own, it can be transformed into piezoelectric fibres.
Although the technology is still in its infancy, the hope is that our clothes will one day charge our devices. For example, just walking in a shirt woven with piezoelectric fibres could generate enough electrical charge to a battery.
