Researchers make breakthrough with phone-charging t-shirt

Found an interesting article :


     Researchers have come up with another use for T-shirts: They can hold a charge like a capacitor.


     A duo at the University of South Carolina, Professor Xiaodong Li and researcher Lihong Bao, managed 
     to convert a cheap t-shirt bought at a discount store into a wearable power source.
     The t-shirt was soaked in flouride, dried and then baked in an oxygen-free room at a high temperature, 
     which changed the fabric from cellulose to activated carbon, without damaging the flexibility of the      
     material.

     The result is that the fabric could be used as a capacitor, which can store an electrical charge. The 
     outcome was further enhanced by coating the fibres with manganese oxide, resulting in what Li called a 
     “stable, high-performing supercapacitor.”
     The professor said that when these are stacked together they could be used to charge phones and tablet      
     computers, making clothing that little bit more useful than it currently is.
     Of course, the potential downside is the unknown risks of wearing “charged” clothing. Electric shock is 
     one possibility that will need to be addressed, made even more problematic when considering what 
     might happen if the fabric gets wet. If these concerns were addressed, however, we might be plugging 
     into our t-shirts and jeans instead of the wall sockets.


I wonder where the limits to science and technology are... It sometimes scares me...


Link : http://vr-zone.com/articles/researchers-make-breakthrough-with-phone-charging-t-shirt/16625.html#