In The Future, You’ll Be Able To Charge Your Smartphone Just By Holding It

It’s called Power Felt: a fabric that can convert body heat into electricity.

Created by Professor David Carroll and his team at the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, Power Felt bypasses other, more expensive renewable energy sources and goes straight for the one source that always seems readily available: You.

This new technology looks just like a non-woven fabric, or felt, but is actually made using nanotechnology, with “tiny carbon nanotubes” placed into “miniscule plastic fibres.”

As you touch the Power Felt, it generates thermal voltage, allowing you to charge or power a number of electronic devices using your own body heat.

Power Felt may also enable researchers to create “smart” clothing, or remove the need for batteries in small toys. Other uses? Powering flashlights just by holding them, or radios during an emergency. The possibilities seem limitless.

Paper: Multilayered Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Composite Based Thermoelectric Fabrics

Image courtesy Jeena Paradies.