Electric sea creature sparks China’s nanogenerator innovation
- Chinese researchers say their tiny device can generate 3,000 volts by copying the way a ray uses electricity as a weapon without harming itself
- Lead researcher Song Qunliang said the design is simple and robust enough to be assembled at home with a pair of scissors
A single discharge of the tiny device – inspired by the electric ray fish – can light up more than 1,260 LED bulbs, each rated above three volts, said the team, in a paper published by the peer-reviewed journal Energy & Environmental Science.
The previous record set by a droplet-based nanogenerator was 237 volts, while a device using an alternative energy source achieved 1,600 volts, the researchers said.
The research was led by Song Qunliang, from Southwest University’s Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, and Guo Hengyu, from Chongqing University’s State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment and System Security and New Technology.
Nanogenerators are small electronic chips that convert mechanical signals – such as small physical movements or falling rain drops – into electricity. They are typically based on solid-liquid contact electrification, the natural phenomenon which generates static electricity and lightning.
Conventional nanogenerators use displacement current – a virtual phenomenon associated with the generation of magnetic fields by time-varying electric fields – to produce an alternating current (AC).