(CN) — Scientists Wednesday unveiled a new prototype for wooden flooring that they say can generate enough electricity through human footsteps to power lightbulbs and small electronics.
From advancements in solar and wind technology to the advent of more accessible electric cars, researchers and inventors have been hard at work trying to come up with new ways to help people across the world embrace cleaner, more renewable energy solutions. Given the threats from climate change and an increasing need for green energy, experts have stressed for years the importance of discovering new ways to promote green energy in everyday life.
In a study published Wednesday in the journal Matter, researchers from Switzerland announce they have tossed a new modern marvel into the ring to help with Earth’s impending energy crisis: floors capable of generating electricity when stepped on.
While such an invention, dubbed a nanogenerator, may sound elaborate, the root of the idea is fairly simple. Researchers constructed their first prototype by taking two pieces of wood flooring and layering them with a network of electrodes, which help generate and transfer electricity throughout the wood whenever it experiences the periodic contact of footfalls, a principle known as the triboelectric effect.
But Guido Panzarasa, group leader in the professorship of wood materials science at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich and Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) Dübendorf, says there is just one little snag with using wood this way.
“Wood is basically triboneutral,” Panzarasa said. “It means that wood has no real tendency to acquire or to lose electrons. So the challenge is making wood that is able to attract and lose electrons.”
To compensate for this problem, researchers outfitted the two pieces of wood with a host of materials designed to improve their electron performance. One piece was coated with a polydimethylsiloxane silicone that helps gain electrons on contact, while the other piece was infused with nanocrystals that have a greater tendency to lose electrons.
Researchers put the wood under the microscope to ensure that they were getting the most electricity-friendly material possible. After testing several candidates, researchers determined that radially cut spruce — a fairly common wood variety for construction projects in many parts of the world — stand above the rest.
Once the right kind of wood was equipped with the right components, experts say they created a prototype device capable of generating 80 times more electricity than normal wood.
“Our focus was to demonstrate the possibility of modifying wood with relatively environmentally friendly procedures to make it triboelectric,” Panzarasa said. “Spruce is cheap and available and has favorable mechanical properties. The functionalization approach is quite simple, and it can be scalable on an industrial level. It’s only a matter of engineering.”
Experts say their invention — no bigger than a piece of paper — was able to produce enough electricity to power common household lightbulbs and even some small electronic devices, like calculators.
Researchers are optimistic that, despite just being a protype at this stage, the basis for their creation could be scaled for use in a host of other applications. They say this kind of device could be implemented throughout newly constructed smart homes, help contain carbon dioxide emissions and promote new, ecofriendly energy options for the future.
“Even though we initially focused on basic research, eventually, the research that we do should lead to applications in the real world,” Panzarasa said. “The ultimate goal is to understand the potentialities of wood beyond those already known and to enable wood with new properties for future sustainable smart buildings.”
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