Georgia Tech Unveils Prototype Nanogenerator 208
Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have created a working prototype nanogenerator capable of generating as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter of continuous direct current. The generators are green (to use), drawing power from natural motion in the surrounding environment. They are based on non-toxic chemicals and should be safe for use in biomechanical implants, but that's not their only potential use. From the article: "If you had a device like this in your shoes when you walked, you would be able to generate your own small current to power small electronics," Wang noted. "Anything that makes the nanowires move within the generator can be used for generating power. Very little force is required to move them."
Who is John Galt? (Score:3, Insightful)
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Gives new meaning (Score:2)
Re:Who is John Galt? (Score:4, Funny)
The output currents they're getting are in the nanoamperes. I takes a billion nanoamperes to make 1 ampere.
Meanwhile, consider microturbine-driven generators in the urinary tract...
Keep the sodas and coffee coming!
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Re:Who is John Galt? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Who is John Galt? (Score:4, Funny)
Also, it's a sled. His beloved childhood sled.
Sorry.
Re:Who is John Galt? (Score:5, Funny)
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SWEET (Score:2, Funny)
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Re:SWEET (Score:4, Funny)
On second thought, forget the Prius.
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. . . and Chuck Norris could become a cheap source of renewable energy for the freedom-loving peoples of the world.
interface (Score:2)
I can't wait to hook one of these up to my nanoBattery [slashdot.org] charger.
But the cherry on all this is that I can still rely on familiar user experience metaphors within the nanoUI.
Conservation of Energy (Score:5, Funny)
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If that is correct then I wonder how surprised your average green would be to discover they do more damage to the environment with the coal generated power required for their visits to Starbucks then any SUV driver.
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Pretty fucking surprised, considering that it takes around 25 horsepower just to keep a car moving at cruising speed. That's 18.6424968 kW. It generally takes at least tens of minutes to drive to work, but it takes only a minute o
Because I'm bored (Score:3, Informative)
You'
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Some redeming quality to loud sterios? (Score:2)
I've hade some serious hatred issues with people who buy 2GW subwoofers and drive down my road. Would these nanogenerators significantly increase their output in such situations? Or are the subwoofer-produced sound frequencies too low for these generators to convert to energy?
Re:Some redeming quality to loud sterios? (Score:4, Funny)
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Also, loud music is fun.
Slashdot: news for nerds, commentary by geriatrics.
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I agree. Loud music is fun. Music that is so loud it is lending significant energy to other objects, however, is not fun.
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You're also not very good at this whole "cause-and-effect" thing, are you?
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As I said, I don't mind loud music all by itself. It's fun. When the bass is cranked so high I can hear windows and door panels vibrating in time to the music, however, I begin to perceive the driver as rude. My comment about launching RPGs at offending drivers was meant as hyperbole.
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Kinetic (Score:5, Funny)
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That's true, but it takes a bit of practice before you get used to using a mouse with your left hand. Alternatively, I guess you could keep your watch on the left hand, and just learn to do it left handed.
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That's true, but it takes a bit of practice before you get used to using a mouse with your left hand. Alternatively, I guess you could keep your watch on the left hand, and just learn to do it left handed.
Even though... (Score:2)
Also, we're seeing more and more of these "something useful from nanotech" articles. I'm hoping this means the original rounds of research are beginning to come to fruition, and we'll see consumer products in 4-10 years.
Re:Even though... (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems to me that this technology makes humans more powerful, but not better. If this technology would only fall into the hands of persons who are well-intentioned, well-informed, and intelligent, that would be a good thing. But I think technology in general empowers both good and evil acts. So I'm not sure that advancing technology is clear-cut progress.
Don't get me wrong - when I'm in the hospital, I certainly want advanced tech. And when my car crashes, or my home needs power, ditto. But some former citizens of Hiroshima an Nagasaki probably have somewhat mixed feelings on the issue.
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Indeed, their assumption of racial superiority was dealt a severe blow. That was a good act if I've ever heard of one.
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Or is it, you don't want to reopen the debate, BUT you want to make your point and not hear others?
Don't be such a simpleton. The net result was unarguably good. This doesn't mean the event itself wasn't horrific and unfortunate. Besides, I was obviously posting an exaggerated comment in direct response to the unthinking PC nonsense spouted by DoofusOfDeath.
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No they don't. That's the point of being a "former citizen".
How about the Wii? (Score:5, Funny)
Wind power generator (Score:5, Funny)
Actually... (Score:2)
Coat flags in it!
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Still, one doesn't know exactly how efficient these things are at absorbing vibrational energy. If they're good enough, they could make pretty good silencers (and the windmill could be replaced by something that amplified the vibrations rath
Is this a dup? (Score:2)
I thought this was covered on Slashdot next week.
This thing works a lot like a piezoelectric fire-starter. [wikipedia.org] I think that 4W/cc potential output power is a peak, not continuous. This may have specialized uses, like powering wristwatches, but it's not a major power source.
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Sorry, we strictly work in this timeframe here on Slashdot.
We'll address any dupes which occur next week then, otherwise it takes all of the fun out of it.
Cheers
Microsoft co-opts technology (Score:5, Funny)
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Prototype doesn't produce 4W... (Score:2, Informative)
Summary could be a little more accurate, seems that in absolutely perfect conditions it could mathematically produce 4W. Who knows what the real world efficiency would be.
"...with optimization, their nanogenerator could produce as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter - based on a calculation for a single nanowire."
Still could be a very useful device, especially if it's durable enough and can be produced cheaply enough to integ
1 e/fn (Score:2)
Embed in childrens' clothing (Score:2, Funny)
Now we have an unobtrusive direct-to-battery technology. Lets get some useful work out of those tykes!
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BFD (Score:2, Informative)
Science by press release (Score:2)
But by the time it hits the press release phase, and then the press release hits the breathless-Slashdot-summary phase, you get a minor accomplishment turned into the Second Coming. We saw the same thing last week with the solar-cell pigments, and many times before that.
I've always imagined that the sci
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Why hasn't this been done a long time ago? (Score:2)
They both have pendulums in them that spin when you move. The watch winds a spring, the pedometer spins a gear system to log the distance you've walked. How hard would it be to take that concept and use the pendulums to spin little generators? Put one in your cell phone so that as you walk around it recharges itself. Duh..
There's a lot of ways this could be put to use.
I'm 100% in love with the idea of a pollution free "self powered world" where everything is powe
Ocean Currents (Score:2)
4W/cc and Frequency (Score:2)
How little power? (Score:3, Insightful)
Only about 4watts/cm2
I'm gonna coat my car and my notebook in these... (Score:2)
Notebook, well it says natural motion, and it's nano-machine based, so I'm guessing this is just air motion and maybe slight vibration... My notebook won't know what to do with all the power it generates
Great !! Now we can get huge power from Chairs (Score:2)
Green to use (Score:3, Informative)
My friend the principle of energy conservation told me that they are no more green to use than that which causes the motion in the surrounding environment (probably a little less).
And what does it cost? (Score:2, Insightful)
What would be interesting in this article would be:
a) What would they cost compared to a NiMH battery?
b) How long would they last?
This is why medical applications is probably the are where this is most interesting. In medicine you often want very small long-lasting power sources that doesn't require surgery to replace. Don't expect to power
Add these to hybrid cars (Score:2)
I dread the moment ... (Score:2)
Re:Electric Emoticon Announcement (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Electric Emoticon Announcement (Score:5, Interesting)
Absolutely- this too is a variation on a power application I've heard about annecdotally here at my employment. Seems back in the 1960s, as they were pushing I-5 through Southern Oregon, they had a problem in the Rogue Valley. They laid down the road bed, came back the next morning, and found the local farmer had blown it up. Turns out it was a bureaucratic mistake- they hadn't actually bothered to file condemnation papers on his field. When they went to court to do so, he asked for no compensation other than to: a. Put a tractor tunnel under the freeway and b. be allowed to lay the roadbed himself. They were puzzeled by this second idea- until they saw him put down the roadbed- instead of just the normal layer of gravel, he put down a thin layer of gravel, a copper pipe zigzaged with the ends on one side, and then another layer of gravel. He then allowed them to pave over the top. To this day, the local school, his farmhouse, and the city hall are warmed from blowing air through that pipe; the combination of the traffic and solar heat on the roadway keeps a pretty constant 80F coming out of the pipe at all times.
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The story has a bit of an urban legend quality to it, but the principles seem sound.
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But I do like the idea of blanketing things. Put this on building roofs to get bird foot traffic. Put it in streets. We can't ramp this technology fast enough. Could we use this on windmills to increase power generation?
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large building generally sway back and forth so you wouldn't even need the birds to generate power there. It seems like you could use this to harness a large amount of the waste energy we produce.
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Choppy waters are generally easier to find than earthquakes (at least where I come from).
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Cost? (Score:2)
$1/generatior and you are talking about $40,500,000 for your little "experiment." So yeah, this is really cool technology, but is it practical to implement on a large scale as compared to other traditional/established methods of power generation. Environmental benefits aside if it isn't at least close on value, then you *probably* won't see this f
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So... if you bought one now it
Waayy to much effort... (Score:2)
Steve
But does it scale? (Score:2)
Another good place to put them would be under a highway bridge, or an oceanside wall for catching waves ...
Unfortunately, I don't see any indication that this would scale to something worthwhile on a larger scale; they haven't proven that this technology would scale to something more efficient than other green energy technologies, and I would guess that it does not.
That doesn't mean that this wouldn't be great for street lights and the like, powered by the people and cars moving by them, but I suspect s
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the fault lines are moving all the time, generating vibrations as the plates move along eachother. when there's an impediment to that movement and it finally breaks free and shifts significantly (as is relative for such things), we feel the large regionally felt quakes, but the movement generates small "quakes" and constant vibrations just due to tectonic motion
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If it really does turn out to be practical for mass power generation, the oceans would seem to be the best place...They're the closest thing this planet has to a perpetual motion machine, aside from the other ocean above it (the atmosphere).
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The Carnot theorem does not apply to these generators since they are not heat engines.
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It's the same reason we're never going to be able to get ALL of our energy from hydro, wind, etc. Putting up significantly more dams or windmills has diminishing returns, as would your scheme, if it were remotely POSSIBLE to begin with.
Intriguing. Looking at this paper [stanford.edu], which was what I could find in a hurry, wind power has a theoretical potential around 72TW, at 80m. Enough for electricity (currently, around 2TW), even if only a small fraction is caught.
Total influx from the sun (which is the ultimate limit for wind, solar hydro etc) is about 174.0 PW. Compare to our total energy use, around 14TW. You have about 4 orders of magnitude of leeway there :)
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Calculators (Score:2)
Calculators are definitely in. Heck, I bet that we could power all of the calculators in the office from the one my co-worker uses. He punches the silly thing routinely when he makes a mistake while using it.
Then again, with tax season reaching its climax, I would imagine that he's not the only one physically abusing a calculator.
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So put the nanogenerators on the backs of the keys, and design them for a decent stroke.
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Good question. A double-A battery on my desk is about 7 cc. And you can get about 1-3 Watts out of a NiMH cell for 30-90 minutes. Taking the 3W number would give you around 0.4W/cc. So let me rephrase that: very good question.
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Fair warning: Absolution Gap is a yawner by comparison.
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Fixed.
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Fixed.
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If you know of such a way, please share it.