T-shirt that generates electricity to recharge gadgets was designed.
Researchers at the Faculty of Science at the University of Malaga (UMA, Spain) have developed an inexpensive T-shirt that generates electricity due to the difference between the temperature of the human body and the environment. This was made possible thanks to a special fabric developed jointly with the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa (IIT).
Its material consists of water, ethanol obtained from the peel of tomatoes, and carbon nanoparticles. When heated, this mixture softens and adheres to the cotton layer, acquiring electrical properties similar to those of tellurium, germanium or lead.
Currently, a group of scientists led by Italian researcher Pietro Cataldi is working on creating devices that can be embedded in textiles, techcult.ru reports. In the future, on their basis, it will be possible to make, for example, a T-shirt that can reflect light or charge small gadgets.
The possibilities of the new electronic fabric are not limited to this. In the future, the material may find application in biomedicine and “flexible” robotics.