Inventing a type of self-generated chip

Princeton University has successfully built a silicon rubber chip capable of generating electricity only by walking or breathing people, to power devices such as pacemakers, cell phones. dynamic.

Engineers working at Priceton University, the United States have created a type of rubber chip capable of generating energy from completely natural movements of the body, such as breathing, walking, thereby providing the machine. Heart support, mobile phones or other electrical devices.

The material used is nano-sized ribbons made of ceramic, attached to silicon rubber sheets, which generate electricity when bent or folded, which transforms mechanical energy into electrical energy. The pieces of rubber chips are placed in the front of the lungs, when it takes advantage of the bulging and collapsing activity of the chest when breathing, thereby charging the pacemaker. As a result, it replaces large batteries in these cardiac devices, reducing weight and discomfort in users.

The chip has the ability to turn the body's mechanical energy into electricity thanks to PZT.

The Princeton University team was the first to successfully use the combination of silicon and nano ribbons, into a ceramic compound called PZT, capable of piezoelectricity, meaning that it creates a voltage when there is pressure on it. This is the highest conversion efficiency material, 80% of the mechanical energy is converted into electricity.

Michael McAlpine, professor of mechanical and aeronautics, head of the project, said: "PZT is 100 times more efficient than Quartz, the most widely used piezoelectric material. With PZT, even going sets or breathing can also harness electricity ".

To create PZT, the team began by stripping nanowires, so that 100 such strands fit well, successively over a length of 1 mm.

In another study, they attached the ribbon to clean silicon rubber sheets, forming piezo rubber chips. With the characteristics of silicon being biocompatible, it is also used in beauty and medical devices.

The study is published in Nano Letters.