Batteries are passé as researchers use ambient sound to charge smartphones

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By Matthew Griffin Earth and Energy 1st March 2019

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Being able to use sound to charge our gadgets is a revolutionary idea, and it’s made possible thanks to advances in Nanomanufacturing.

This could be the greatest power discovery for mobiles, ever. Apparently. So say researchers at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) in the UK who have built a smartphone in partnership with Nokia that is able to charge itself by just using ambient sound in the atmosphere around it.

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The smartphone in question was built using a principle called the piezoelectric effect, and Nanogenerators were created that harvest ambient noise and turn that into electric current. Effectively this allows the phone to be powered from the waste noise found all around us, such as the noise from children, who let’s face it are a constant source of noise, and now as it turns out also a useful way to charge your smartphone – who knew?!

The team added zinc oxide to a chemical mix and coated a material with it, which made the liquid zinc oxide grow into tiny nanorods all over the sheet. These rods it turns out are so small and so sensitive they bend in response to the pressure of sound waves. This is then harvested to produce an impressive 5 volts which is enough to charge a basic mobile phone.

Impressively the nanorods also respond to the human voice meaning that those chatty mobile users out there could actually be powering the phone as they talk. Awesome! And maybe this will cause a resurgence in phone calls over messaging.

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Dr Joe Briscoe from QMUL’s School of Engineering and Materials Science said: “Being able to keep mobile devices working for longer, or do away with batteries completely by tapping into the stray energy that is all around us is an exciting concept. This collaboration was an excellent opportunity to develop alternative device designs using cheap and scalable methods. We hope that we have brought this technology closer to viability.”

Matthew Griffin / About Author

Described by NASA as a "Walking Encyclopaedia of the Future" and one of the world’s most in demand keynote speakers Matthew Griffin, Founder and Futurist in Chief of the 311 Institute, a global Futures and Deep Futures advisory firm, is a multi-award winning Futurist and strategic foresight expert, author, lecturer, mentor, podcast and YouTube host.

With a distinguished career running global business units at Atos, EMC, and IBM today Matthew helps leaders and titans of industry from all over the world explore the impact of the inter sections of technology, culture, and leadership, then helps them create high performance organisations that can continuously disrupt, outpace, and outthink their competition.

15 times author of the hit series the Codex of the Future series Matthew's ability to identify, track, and explain the impacts of hundreds of emerging technologies and trends on global business, culture, and society has earned him a powerful reputation and a roster of clients that include royal households, world leaders across the G7, G20, and G77, and many of the world's most recognised and exceptional organisations including ABB, Accenture, ABN Amro, Adidas, AON, ARM, BCG, Centrica, Citi Group, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Dentons, Disney, Dow, EY, Google, KPMG, Lego, Microsoft, Legal & General, LinkedIn, Nokia, Paramount, PepsiCo, PWC, Qualcomm, RWE, Samsung, T-Mobile, UBS, Visa, WIRED, WPP and hundreds of others.

Matthew is regularly featured in the global media including the AP, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Discovery, Forbes, Khaleej Times, Telegraph, TIME, ViacomCBS, WIRED, and the WSJ, and his mission is to help organisations create a fair and sustainable future whose benefits are shared by everyone irrespective of their ability, background, or circumstances.