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Inspired by Marty McFly's self-lacing Nikes, Associate Professor Jayan Thomas, a nanotechnology scientist at the University of Central Florida's NanoScience Technology Center, developed solar-powered filaments that also store energy and can be woven into textiles.
"That movie was the motivation," Thomas said. "If you can develop self-charging clothes or textiles, you can realize those cinematic fantasies – that's the cool thing."
The smart textiles would act as wearable solar-powered batteries that could charge our devices and carry out different functions themselves thanks to the renewable power source.
The filaments are made from thin copper ribbon with solar cells on one side and an energy storing layer on the other. Using a table top loom, Thomas and his team were able to weave the filaments into a square of yarn. The ease with which they were able to produce a textile with these filaments prove that the smart textile could either be used as a part or make up the entirety of outer layer clothing like jackets to power personal health tracking devices, smartphones and more.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bob_super on Tuesday November 15 2016, @11:18PM
The more sun there is, the less clothes people wear, which you combine with sub-optimal fabric-woven efficiency to get a power figure in the "not much" range.
Then you realize that most people don't walk outside on all fours, so that's another 40% gone for not having the fabric perpendicular to the sun...
By the time you do the math, you're better off putting a basic solar panel on your hat (bonus production for the English ladies at the horse races).
Solar top hats are the future of shitty-battery phones!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 16 2016, @03:47AM
It's probably worse than that, as all the 'solar bits' aren't even going to be aligned with the outside of the garment. But randomly aligned all over the twisting thread.
(Score: 2) by Murdoc on Thursday November 17 2016, @04:09AM
You're right. Weaving this into clothing is not a smart move. However, what about beach umbrellas, patio umbrellas, and parasols? Those all come out when it's most sunny.