A device that harvests electricity from tiny changes in air temperature could power the sensors of the future.
and colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle filled a small bellows with chloroethane gas, which expands and contracts a great deal for small temperature fluctuations. The resulting movement of the bellows in turn moves a magnet inside a coil, producing a current.
The team found that for just a 0.25聽掳C change in temperature they were able to generate enough juice to .
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The Washington team were inspired to develop their harvester after reading about the developed by Swiss inventor Jean-L茅on Reutter in 1928. The clock had bellows filled with chloroethane, and an attached mechanism that wound the clock鈥檚 mainspring. Changes in ambient temperature of just 1聽掳C were enough to keep the clock going for two days.
The team is now attempting to improve the power output and shrink the device to the size of a D-cell battery. Zhao says the device could work continuously for decades without maintenance, making it ideal for powering hard-to-reach sensors, such as those monitoring pipes for leaks, or for indoor positioning beacons. Zhao presented the work this week at the in Seattle.
