WEARABLE COPPER RIBBONS FOR HARVESTING AND STORING ENERGY

摘要

Scientists from the University of Wollongong (UOW) have developed a flexible copper strip that could be the answer to powering electronic devices via the clothes we wear. Collaborating with the University of Central Florida's (UCF) NanoScience Technology Center, the researchers integrated a perovskite-based solar cell and a supercapacitor in a thin copper ribbon. This enabled the ribbon to simultaneously harvest and store energy - unlike other wearable power sources which typically require one device to harvest the energy and another to store it. "Presently, most portable electronic and wearable devices carry rechargeable batteries, even when they are used in places where solar energy is plentiful," said UOW Senior Lecturer Dr Konstantin Konstantinov.