Scottish Daily Mail

End of mobile chargers? Mini ‘wind turbines’ on wrist set to power phones

- Daily Mail Reporter

TINY ‘wind turbines’ which strap to our wrists could spell the end of having to plug our phones into chargers, according to scientists.

A team has developed a gadget that captures enough energy from the breeze as we swing our arms walking along to keep devices powered up.

The tool, called a nanogenera­tor, is made of two plastic strips which flutter and rub against each other, creating static electricit­y.

Researcher­s hope this could one day be harnessed to provide a cheap, endless power supply for portable devices.

They also believe the technology could be used on a larger scale to replace inefficien­t wind turbines.

The scientists have been working on nanogenera­tors of varying sizes, some as small as a coin – although they think the devices can be made even smaller.

The two plastic strips become charged through a process called the triboelect­ric effect, working in much the same way as rubbing a balloon over your hair.

They are effective with winds as weak as three and a miles an hour, although perform best at between 9mph and 18mph, when the strips flutter in sync.

In tests the nanogenera­tor, which is highly efficient at converting wind to energy, powered 100 LED lights.

The study’s senior author Dr Ya Yang, of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences near Beijing, said: ‘You can collect all the breeze in your everyday life. We once placed our nanogenera­tor on a person’s arm, and a swinging arm’s airflow was enough to generate power.

‘We have designed a nanogenera­tor as small as a coin, but we want to make it even tinier with higher efficiency.’

The researcher­s, who published their findings in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, say they also aim to make a much larger device which can be used in areas where wind turbines are less effective, such as on land.

The UK has more than 10,000 wind turbines, with each costing anywhere from £350,000 to £3million. While nearly 9,000 of the turbines are onshore, the offshore turbines are more productive.

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