via Fashion Nerd
There is no denying it, a lot of innovation is taking place in the field of smart textiles. That is why we were super excited to read, in an issue of Science, that a research team,led by scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas and Hanyang University in Seoul, South Korea, have developed a new form of yarnology, called Twistron, that generates electricity when stretched or twisted.
According to the University of Texas at Dallas news centre article, No Batteries Required: Energy-Harvesting Yarns Generate Electricity, the yarns are constructed from carbon nanotubes, that are hollow cylinders of carbon 10,000 times smaller in diameter than a strand of human hair. They article explains, “The researchers first twist-spun the nanotubes into high-strength, lightweight yarns. To make the yarns highly elastic, they introduced so much twist that the yarns coiled like an over-twisted rubber band. In order to generate electricity, the yarns must be either submerged in or coated with an ionically conducting material, or electrolyte, which can be as simple as a mixture of ordinary table salt and water.”
Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!