“Generic Air-Gen Effect in Nanoporous Materials for Sustainable Energy Harvesting from Air Humidity”

#HygroElectricity / #power / #signals / #nanowires / #MetaMaterials / #UMass <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202300748>

“The #UMass Amherst team were surprised to find that the device, which comprised an array of microscopic tubes, or #nanowires, was producing an electrical signal regardless.

Each nanowire was less than one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, wide enough that an airborne water molecule could enter, but so narrow it would bump around inside the tube. Each bump, the team realised, lent the material a small #charge, and as the frequency of bumps increased, one end of the tube became differently charged from the other. ‘So it’s really like a battery,’”

#HygroElectricity / #power / #signals / #nanowires / #MetaMaterials / #uap
<https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/jul/02/it-was-an-accident-the-scientists-who-have-turned-humid-air-into-renewable-power>

Wait till you read about how in ‘59 the properties of #Nitinol were discovered?

“The Story of Nitinol: The Serendipitous Discovery of the Memory Metal and Its Applications”, KAUFFMAN & MAYO, The Chemical Educator, ‘97

“In 1959 Buehler...named [this nickel-titanium alloy] NITINOL (Nickel Titanium Naval Ordnance Laboratory)… I distinctly remember my very exciting discovery of the acoustic damping change with temperature change near room temperature.”

“In ‘61 a …meeting was scheduled to review ongoing projects. Unable to attend, Buehler sent... his assistant… During the presentation, it was passed around the conference table and flexed ..One of the Associate Technical Directors, Dr. David S. Muzzey, who was a pipe smoker, applied heat from his pipe lighter to the compressed strip. To everyone’s amazement, the Nitinol stretched out longitudinally.”

#uap / #MetaMaterials / #Nickel /. #Titanium <https://www.scasd.org/cms/lib/PA01000006/Centricity/Domain/1489/The%20Story%20of%20Nitinol.pdf>