TECH

Scientists develop tissue that produces and stores solar energy
The advantages of solar energy are numerous, and the main one refers to solar energy as inexhaustible and with increasingly evident potential to become the energy of the future capable of solving all the energy problems of humanity. Some say that it is only a matter of time until this happens.
Unfortunately, not everything is easy, and there are problems and limitations for the generation of solar energy, which is the cost, since this technology is still expensive, which with time will stop happening since with globalization the prices will tend to decrease, another problem is space.
This issue of space has to do with the need for a sunny surface for the placement of photovoltaic solar panels, and it is not so easy to find more and more places for this. To solve or minimize this problem, a scientist has created a fabric capable of generating and storing solar energy. Fabric capable of generating and storing solar energy
Imagine having a suit that can work as a photovoltaic panel and can recharge electronic devices without any other source of energy? It would be incredible, and that's it, because Professor Jayan Thomas of the University of Central Florida (UCF) is making that happen.
Thomas and his team of researchers at UCF's Center for Nanoscience have developed an innovative textile fiber that can turn solar energy into electricity.
In addition, the system developed by the university team, instead of putting some equipment attached to clothes, uses the fibers themselves to store the energy, dispensing with the use of batteries, which would make the clothes weird, heavy and impractical.
This was possible using a kind of fiber made from copper and that is very thin and flexible, in addition to almost no weight. This type of thin copper fabric has a solar energy pickup cell and on the other side has layers of energy storage.
The tests were performed on an old loom in order to carry out actual experiments, which proved that the filaments could be tranquilly joined in the same way as any other fabric, without destroying the structure of capture and storage. This type of fabric has a multitude of utilities, such as for military clothing and can even be applied to normal clothing related to fashion. Renewable Energy Magazine