As scientists, researchers, and companies all try to solve the various energy-related crises facing the world in the 21st century, new and exciting processes and technologies are being developed to harness, store, and create energy - including, from a group of researchers at University of Massachusetts Amherst, using nanopores to harvest clean electricity… out of thin air.
It sounds like magic; what it really is, is called the “generic Air-gen effect” - and uses tiny nanopores (aka a nanometer-sized hole) to pull the natural electricity in the Earth’s air. The nanopores allow water molecules to pass through, creating a charge imbalance - and according to the study, essentially forming a batter that runs continuously, as long as there is humidity in the air.
While this isn’t a solution for every climate on Earth, the potential is obviously boundless - according to the scientists involved, any kind of material can harvest electricity from the air, as long as it has holes smaller than 100 nanometers - or less than 1/1000th the width of a human hair. It may be decades before we see nanopore-based electricity harvesters available in our local hardware store, we’re clearly in a new age of innovation when it comes to powering future life on our planet.
Comments