The first-of-its-kind nanogenerator also acts as a weather station — ScienceDaily

"The device can work in remote areas because it provides its own power and does not need batteries," stated senior creator Richard Kaner, who holds UCLA's Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Materials Innovation. "It's a very clever device -- a weather station that can tell you how much snow is falling, the direction the snow is falling, and the direction and speed of the wind."

The researchers name it a snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator, or snow TENG. A triboelectric nanogenerator, which generates cost via static electrical energy, produces vitality from the change of electrons.

Findings in regards to the gadget are revealed within the journal Nano Energy.

"Static electricity occurs from the interaction of one material that captures electrons and another that gives up electrons," stated Kaner, who's also a distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, and of supplies science and engineering, and a member of the California NanoPrograms Institute at UCLA. "You separate the charges and create electricity out of essentially nothing."

Snow is positively charged and offers up electrons. Silicone -- a artificial rubber-like materials that's composed of silicon atoms and oxygen atoms, mixed with carbon, hydrogen and different parts -- is negatively charged. When falling snow contacts the floor of silicone, that produces a cost that the gadget captures, creating electrical energy.

"Snow is already charged, so we thought, why not bring another material with the opposite charge and extract the charge to create electricity?" stated co-author Maher El-Kady, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher of chemistry and biochemistry.

"While snow likes to give up electrons, the performance of the device depends on the efficiency of the other material at extracting these electrons," he added. "After testing a large number of materials including aluminum foils and Teflon, we found that silicone produces more charge than any other material."

About 30 % of the Earth's floor is roofed by snow every winter, throughout which period photo voltaic panels usually fail to function, El-Kady famous. The accumulation of snow reduces the quantity of daylight that reaches the photo voltaic array, limiting the panels' energy output and rendering them much less efficient. The new gadget might be built-in into photo voltaic panels to supply a steady energy provide when it snows, he stated.

The gadget can be utilized for monitoring winter sports activities, such as snowboarding, to extra exactly assess and enhance an athlete's efficiency when operating, strolling or leaping, Kaner stated. It also has the potential for figuring out the principle motion patterns utilized in cross-country snowboarding, which can't be detected with a good watch.

It may usher in a new era of self-powered wearable units for monitoring athletes and their performances.

It can also ship alerts, indicating whether or not a particular person is shifting. It can inform when a particular person is strolling, operating, leaping or marching.

The analysis crew used Three-D printing to design the gadget, which has a layer of silicone and an electrode to seize the cost. The crew believes the gadget might be produced at low price given "the ease of fabrication and the availability of silicone," Kaner stated. Silicone is broadly utilized in trade, in merchandise such as lubricants, electrical wire insulation and biomedical implants, and it now has the potential for vitality harvesting.