Clean and Limitless Power from Graphene

By: | October 9th, 2020

Image courtesy: University of Arkansas

In a big breakthrough, researchers developed an innovative way to generate clean and limitless energy using graphene’s thermal motion. This revolutionary technology could help people replace disposable energy sources and save them from the lifetime purchase of small batteries. 

University of Arkansas physicists have successfully developed a circuit that generates electrical current from the atomic motion of graphene. 

Researchers cleverly harnessed the back and forth movement of particles – found in graphene. According to the researchers, manner in which the graphene moves is more apparent at room temperature. This thermal motion in graphene induces an alternating current in the circuit that could be put to a variety of uses.

Paul Thibado, the lead researcher in the discovery, said, “An energy-harvesting circuit based on graphene could be incorporated into a chip to provide clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices or sensors,”

It is a great discovery. Researchers are now working to find out how the system might be deployed and used in something practical. For that, they have to figure out how electricity generated by graphene could be stored in a capacitor. 

Although the energy generated through this procedure is quite small, it could one day be a replacement for low-power batteries. The best part will be that it wouldn’t need recharging or replacing.

If all goes as per plans, it will provide limitless low-voltage power for small devices or sensors.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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