Cell phone battery dead? Scientists suggest going for a jog to charge it
Researchers at the University of Southern California have tipped our friend Graphene as the best material for electrodes in a new design for a flexible organic solar cell. The new design could lead to photovoltaics so flexible they could one day be made into fabric, the researchers say.
Researcher Gomez de Arco speculates: "They could be hung as curtains in homes or even made into fabric and be worn as power generating clothing. I can imagine people powering their cellular phone ... while jogging in the sun.”
The Californian technique for producing graphene was first published three years ago. It starts with creating a thin film of graphene through vapour deposition on nickel. The graphene layer is then coated in a thermo-plastic layer while the nickel is dissolved in an acid bath and subsequently sandwiched to a flexible polymer sheet.
