Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Emerging Tech
  3. News

MIT researchers may have figured out how to harness human motion to generate electricity

Lulu Chang
By

running exercise workout
In our ongoing search for renewable energy resources, one of the least attainable thus far has been our own motion. But now, researchers at MIT seem prepared to change that — in a new paper published in Nature Communications, the team details how it developed a “novel class of mechanical energy harvesters via stress–voltage coupling in electrochemically alloyed electrodes,” or in English, motion-powered batteries.

Using electrochemical technology, the researchers have found a way to generate alternating current from the process of bending the new material back and forth. Essentially, the “battery” works by moving lithium ions between two electrodes. “You can think of it as two water tanks, each containing a lot of lithium,” Sangtae Kim, the MIT researcher who authored the recent paper told takepart.com. “In between the tanks we have this layer of electrolyte where only lithium ions can pass. In a conventional battery we move the lithium ions by supplying electricity. In this case, we press one water tank, or electrode, and that moves the lithium ions from the one electrode to the other.”

Recommended Videos

This new method of energy production, Kim says, has the potential to be far more efficient than say, piezoelectrics, which refers to the generation of electricity from applied pressure. “For piezo, in almost all cases they are made of ceramic materials, which indicate that they don’t really conduct electricity,” Kim said. “So a vast amount of the electricity generated becomes heat.”

Related

And while this new electrochemical method is currently just 15 percent efficient, Kim has high hopes that it could one day become 100 percent efficient.

The new tech is still a ways away from being implemented in real-life situations, however. “Currently it’s only a laboratory version that tests the mechanisms and demonstrates the principles,” Kim noted. “Our next step would be to stack these into the right engineering shape so that this can actually be used in real-life applications.”

So who knows — maybe one day you can charge your phone just by taking it for a walk.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Lulu Chang
Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
Japanese researchers are teaching tires how to generate electricity
sumitomos smart tire concept generates electricity as it rolls sumitomo

Automakers and their suppliers are on a quest to reinvent every part of the car in the coming years, and tires aren't excluded from this overhaul program. Japanese tire company Sumitomo teamed up with researchers from the Kansai University to develop an experimental tire that generates electricity as it rolls.

The company explained it developed a small, square-shaped device called Energy Harvester that mounts to the insider of a tire and converts friction into electricity. There's no need to create the friction, because it's already there. Even normal tires don't stay round. Their shape constantly changes as the car brakes, accelerates, turns, and goes over speed bumps. This elasticity generates the friction which the Energy Harvester converts into electricity.

Read more
The Honda E Prototype is the electric car Apple should have come out with
Honda E Prototype

Previous

Next

Read more
Fears about kids’ screen use may have been overblown, Oxford researchers find
social media addiction teens on phones

Many people take it as gospel that digital technologies are harmful to young people’s mental health. But is this actually the case? A recent study from the University of Oxford, which analyzed data from 350,000 subjects in the U.K and United States, suggests we may be overstating their significance.

While the researchers don’t deny that digital technologies can have a negative impact on young users, they conclude that it contributes just 0.4 percent toward a young person’s negative well-being. According to the study, digital technologies are far, far outstripped by other influences -- including binge-drinking, marijuana use, and even the importance of a good breakfast.

Read more