WOODEN floors that are infused with silicon and metal ions can generate enough electrical power from our footsteps to light LED bulbs. Researchers hope that this could provide a green energy source for homes. Some materials can generate an electrical charge when they come into contact with another such material and are then separated, due to a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect. Electrons are transferred and generate a charge. The materials that tend to donate electrons in this process are known as tribopositive and those that tend to receive them are known as tribonegative. Guido Panzarasa at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues found that although wood sits in the middle of this spectrum and doesn't readily pass electrons, it can be altered to generate larger charges. The team infused one panel of wood with silicon, which picks up electrons on contact with an object. A second panel was infused with nanocrystals of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8, a compound that contains metal ions and organic molecules, and these crystals have a tendency to lose electrons.
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