The research team led by Professor Yang-Kyu Choi and Daewon Kim, PhD of our department developed a nanogenerator that generates electricity from vibrations in any direction using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) nanopowder in November.
This development has been covered by the press, including Yonhap News, and was published on the December 23rd online issue of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) international journal, ACS Nano.
The generator is capable of leveraging vibrations of up to 30 Hz for generating enough electricity to light up 240 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are connected in series or even charge a smartphone.
These generators can be constructed in numerous different shapes or sizes and have shown to be much more cost efficient and commercializable than previous energy harvesting devices, due to the materials used and their manufacturing methods.
The title of the journal publication is “Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on the Internal Motion of Powder with a Package Structure Design.”
Press release link (Yonhap News): http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/bulletin/2016/01/10/0200000000AKR20160110061500063.HTML
Journal publication link: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsnano.5b06329