IIT Delhi Builds Device To Generate And Store Electricity From Rain Drops And Rivers
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT) have developed a device which generates electricity from water.?
According to the IIT Delhi researchers, the groundbreaking device is able to harvest electricity from water drops, rain, streams of water and even from ocean waves.?Once captured, the energy is stored in batteries for later use.?
How does the device generate power from rain drops?
Officially called the "Liquid-solid Interface Triboelectric Nanogenerator", the device employs the power of "Triboelectric Effect" to generate and keep the energy intact.
In the triboelectric effect, two surfaces that are in friction produce energy - the same sparkling light that is generated under your blankets every winter. While the existence of this effect has been long known, its usage in terms of energy generation is being explored only in recent times.? ?
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The device that turns drops into electricity consists of nano-composite polymers, a few contact electrodes. Even with such a simple set up, the device can harvest up to a few Milliwatt (mW) of power.?
This energy is enough to power small electronic devices like health sensors, watches, digital thermometers, and pedometers among many things.?
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In addition to this, the IIT Delhi team found that saline water can generate more energy than fresh water.?
How was the study realised?
The research was headed by Professor Neeraj Khare from the Department of Physics at IIT-Delhi and his peers at the Nanoscale Research Facility (NRF).?
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The team has been studying how to generate electricity using triboelectric effect for quite some time now. And the project has been supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) under the Nnetra scheme.?
With further exploration, such research could limit the dependence on traditional modes of electricity generation. The future is now and we intend to keep you updated. For the latest in science and technology from India and the world, keep reading Indiatimes.com.
