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'Hot Bodies' Can Generate Real Electricity, Say Wake Forest Researchers

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February 23, 2012

'Hot Bodies' Can Generate Real Electricity, Say Wake Forest Researchers

By Cheryl Kaften
TMCnet Contributor

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Researchers at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, have found a way to convert “normal” 98.6° Fahrenheit body heat into a usable electric current. Imagine what a person experiencing a “hot flash” might accomplish!


When graduate student Corey Hewitt (Ph.D. candidate, 2013) picks up a two-inch square of black fabric, a meter erupts in reaction. Simply by holding a small swatch of Power Felt between two fingers, he has converted his body heat into an electrical current.

The promising new thermoelectric device – developed at the university’s Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials – comprises tiny carbon nanotubes locked up in flexible plastic fibers and made to feel like fabric, Power Felt uses temperature differences – room temperature versus body temperature, for instance – to create a charge.

“We waste a lot of energy in the form of heat. For example, recapturing a car’s energy waste could help improve fuel mileage; as well as power the radio, air conditioning, or navigation system,” Hewitt explained. “Generally thermoelectrics are an underdeveloped technology for harvesting energy, yet there is so much opportunity.”

Potential uses for Power Felt include lining automobile seats to boost battery power and service electrical needs, insulating pipes or collecting heat under roof tiles to lower gas or electric bills, lining clothing or sports equipment to monitor performance, or wrapping IV or wound sites to better track patients’ medical needs.

“Imagine it in an emergency kit, wrapped around a flashlight, powering a weather radio, charging a prepaid cell phone,” commented David Carroll, director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials. “Literally, just by sitting on your phone, Power Felt could provide relief during power outages or accidents.”

Cost has prevented thermoelectrics from being used more widely in consumer products. Standard thermoelectric devices use a much more efficient compound called bismuth telluride to turn heat into power in products, including mobile refrigerators and CPU coolers, but it can cost $1,000 per kilogram. In contrast, researchers think that, someday, Power Felt would cost only $1 to add to a cell phone cover.

Currently Hewitt is evaluating several ways to add more nanotube layers and make them even thinner, which would boost the power output. Although there’s more work to do before Power Felt is ready for market, he said, “I imagine being able to make a jacket with a completely thermoelectric inside liner that gathers warmth from body heat, while the exterior remains cold from the outside temperature. If the Power Felt is efficient enough, you could potentially power an iPod, which would be great for distance runners. It’s pretty cool to think about, and it’s definitely within reach.”

Currently Wake Forest is in talks with investors to produce Power Felt commercially. The research appears in the current issue of Nano Letters, a leading journal in nanotechnology, as well as on the school’s website





Edited by Jennifer Russell

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