With advancements in technology, you never know what might be the next big thing in the line of designs and innovations. How else would you describe a future gadget which will not be powered by the usual means but by your own t-shirt? I could have said by its touchscreen but the t-shirt sounds more far-fetched, doesn’t it? So well it could be both as there are speculations that the next big thing in line of gadgets and power system is the way it will power up. By developing a small charge in your touchscreen or your apparel’s textiles, you could power up.
It is expected to work on phenomena using the electromagnetic property. Since amber was first used for its charge effect called the triboelectric effect, researchers have gotten together to find this touchscreen technology. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Dept. of Energy, ‘touchscreen technology’ has been developed which is capable enough of producing a small charge. These materials have been built using polydimethylsiloxane, a polyester film and a coating of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO). When combined in a sandwich like structure, the surfaces were formed of the pyramidal nanostructure-type. These were observed as something that could create the highest electric charge for this technology. It can well be equated with the sort that is used in a built-in generator for a transparent screen.
However, ITO has some drawbacks. These include having a short supply of power and taking care of other potential safety issues. The need of the next generation gadgets can be fulfilled only by ‘flexible energy storage’. A standard battery would obviously stand in the way of flexibility of the gadgets. So this ‘Flexbattery’ would have to be made of paper, films or even textiles.
