BREAKTHROUGH: Your body could generate electricity and power wearable devices in the future, watch video

Scientists have created a flexible material that can harvest energy from body movements to power wearable devices and sensors. Researchers from Rice University in US apted laser-induced graphene (LIG) into small, metal-free devices that generate electricity.  Like rubbing a balloon on hair, putting LIG composites in contact with or surfaces produces static electricity that can be used to power devices, y said.

According to research published in journal ACS Na, triboelectric effect helps materials gar a charge through contact. When y are put toger and n pulled apart, surface charges build up that can be channelled toward power generation.In experiments, researchers connected a folded strip of LIG to a string of light-emitting diodes and found that tapping strip produced eugh energy to make m flash. 

A larger piece of LIG embedded within a flip-flop let a wearer generate energy with every step, as graphene composite's repeated contact with skin produced a current to charge a small capacitor.

"This could be a way to recharge small devices just by using excess energy of heel strikes during walking, or swinging arm movements against torso," said James Tour, from Rice University.

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LIG is a graphene foam produced when chemicals are heated on surface of a polymer or or material with a laser, leaving only interconnected flakes of two-dimensional carbon. team first me LIG on common polyimide, but extended technique to plants, food, treated paper and wood. researchers turned polyimide, cork and or materials into LIG electrodes to see how well y produced energy and stood up to wear and tear. 

y got best results from materials on opposite ends of triboelectric series, which quantifies ir ability to generate static charge by contact electrification. In folding configuration, LIG from tribo-negative polyimide was sprayed with a protecting coating of polyurethane, which also served as a tribo-positive material. When electrodes were brought toger, electrons transferred to polyimide from polyurethane. 

Subsequent contact and separation drove charges that could be stored through an external circuit to rebalance built-up static charge. folding LIG generated about one kilovolt, and remained stable after 5,000 bending cycles. best configuration, with electrodes of polyimide-LIG composite and aluminum, produced volts above 3.5 kilovolts with a peak power of more than 8 eight milliwatts.

" nagenerator embedded within a flip-flop was able to store 0.22 millijoules of electrical energy on a capacitor after a one-kilometre walk," said Michael Stanford, postdoctoral researcher at Rice University.

"This rate of energy stor is eugh to power wearable sensors and electronics with human movement," Stanford said.