The University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their colleagues have developed a new and improved version of "twistrons," a high-tech yarn that can generate #electricity through #mechanical movement such as stretching or twisting.
Unlike previous versions, the new #twistrons are more efficient and are created by intertwining three individual strands of spun carbon nanotube fibers, rather than twisting the fibers to the point of coiling. The new twistrons showed an energy conversion efficiency of 17.4% for tensile energy harvesting and 22.4% for torsional energy harvesting, compared to 7.6% in older models.
The improved performance of the new twistrons is due to a lateral compression of the yarn that occurs upon stretching or twisting, which affects the electrical properties of the yarn and causes the carbon nanotubes to come into closer contact, increasing the energy-harvesting ability.
The new twistrons can also be used for sensing and harvesting human motion, and can be deployed in salt water for harvesting ocean wave energy. The researchers have applied for a patent and the study is published in the journal Nature Energy.
