A T-shirt that generates electricity

[zakiyatasnim]

Imagine if your T-shirt could charge your phone during your morning run. It sounds like a fantasy, but in reality it's quite possible - the main thing is to wear the right T-shirt.



Researchers from the University of Malaga and the Italian Institute of Technology have developed a T-shirt that can generate electricity from the difference between the wearer's body temperature and the environment. It can convert the heat your body gives off when you run, walk or play sports, and the difference between that heat and the cooler air temperature, into thermal energy.

Thermal energy is all around us—it's produced by the sun heating uae number data the atmosphere, and by a stove heating a pot of water. There's also excess heat—such as that emitted into the atmosphere by machines, electrical processes, and even people. All of this excess heat can be converted into thermal energy.

To harness this heat, you need the thermoelectric effect, which converts a temperature difference into an electrical voltage. If you connect two conductors and heat one of them, electrons will start to move to the cold end, creating a current. Some materials can be conductors and convert the temperature difference into energy. The T-shirt developed by the researchers does just that — it collects the heat emanating from the body, which contrasts with the air temperature, and generates electricity from it.

Thermoelectric materials typically collect excess heat generated by cars or industrial processes. The most common materials used to convert thermal energy into electricity are quite rare and not very environmentally friendly (for example, tellurium is a material that is as rare as gold and platinum). “These materials are very expensive, hard and toxic,” explains José Alejandro Heredia, a researcher at the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Malaga and one of the authors of the project. Therefore, they are not suitable for creating clothes.”