These wood floors could generate energy from your steps

Every step you take has the ability to generate energy — if you’re walking on the right kind of floor.

Material science researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have figured out how to build wood flooring material that converts downward pressure into usable electricity.

Xudong Wang, an associate professor of materials science and engineering who’s leading the research, tells Business Insider that the science behind this technology is simple. The flooring is made of pressed wood pulp, which is separated into a series of small layers that have different electrical charges. Each layer is less than millimetre thick, and there are very small spaces between each one. When people walk on them, the weight causes the layers to get pushed together.

“Basically if we have two different materials that have different abilities to attract electrons, then once we put them together electrons will transfer from one to the other,” Wang says.

In other words, because the layers are chemically treated to have different charges, electrons from one naturally flow to the other once they come into contact, building up a charge. Then once the layers separate, the electrons seek to right that imbalance and flow back.

The movement of electrons amongst different atoms is by definition an electrical current. To harness that electricity, the wood flooring forces the electrons to pass through an external circuit as they return to correct the charge imbalance.

This type of energy is called triboelectricity, and it happens when charged materials rub against other materials. It’s the same thing that happens when your clothing produces static electricity.