A Triboelectric Generator In Your Shoe #WearableWednesday
On the offhand chance that you drive on I-5 in California, you’ll pass by the Altamont Pass Windmill Fields. They generate enormous amounts of electricity from natural phenomena. Likewise the Grand Coulee dam in Washington and the particularly clever Hawk’s Next Tunnel in West Virginia. If you walk enough, you might be able to do the same by puitting a triboelectric generator in your shoe. Here’s more from Hackaday:
The triboelectric effect is familiar to anyone who has rubbed wool on a PVC pipe, or a balloon on a childs’ hair and then stuck it on the wall. Rubbing transfers some electrons from one material to the other, and they become oppositely charged. We usually think of this as “static” electricity because we don’t connect the two sides up with electrodes and wires. But what if you did? You’d have a triboelectric generator.
In this video, [Cayrex] demonstrates just how easy making a triboelectric generator can be. He takes pieces of aluminum tape, sticks them to paper, and covers them in either Kapton or what looks like normal polypropylene packing tape. And that’s it. You just have to push the two sheets together and apart, transferring a few electrons with each cycle, and you’ve got a tiny generator.
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