Eden.fm

DailyTech – Researchers Use Nanowires to Turn Blood Flow into Electricity.

A group of researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology has announced a new breakthrough that could one day provide power to cell phones and other electronics devices by generating electricity from blood flow in the body.

The researchers have devised a method that allows the generation of energy by converting low-frequency vibrations from body movement, heartbeat, blood flow, and the wind into electricity. The discovery uses zinc oxide nanowires that generate electricity when subjected to mechanical stress.

The nanowires are very small at about 1/5,000th of the diameter of a human hair and about 1/25th of the length of a human hair. According to researcher Zhong Lin Wang from the Georgia Institute of Technology, the nanowires can be grown on materials like metals, ceramics, polymers, and clothing.