Here is what the scientists call a "Natural Gift".....the ability to generate Electricity out of apparently thin air...and they want to use it in wall paint...Imagine that---generating your electricity from your wall paint!!!...but remember--And though I...understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; ... and have not Love, I am nothing. 1 Corinthians 13:2
"They found it buried in the muddy shores of the Potomac River more than three decades ago: a strange "sediment organism" that could do things nobody had ever seen before in bacteria.
This unusual microbe, belonging to the Geobacter genus, was first noted for its ability to produce magnetite in the absence of oxygen, but with time scientists found it could make other things too, like bacterial nanowires that conduct electricity.
For years, researchers have been trying to figure out ways to usefully exploit that natural gift, and they might have just hit pay-dirt with a device they're calling the Air-gen. According to the team, their device can create electricity out of… well, almost nothing.
"We are literally making electricity out of thin air," says electrical engineer Jun Yao from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7."
The claim may sound like an overstatement, but a new study by Yao and his team describes how the air-powered generator can indeed create electricity with nothing but the presence of air around it.
It's all thanks to the electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by Geobacter (G. sulfurreducens, in this instance)....the nanowire film is able to adsorb water vapor that exists in the atmosphere, enabling the device to generate a continuous electrical current conducted between the two electrodes.
The team says the charge is likely created by a moisture gradient that creates a diffusion of protons in the nanowire material.
"A maintained moisture gradient, which is fundamentally different to anything seen in previous systems, explains the continuous voltage output from our nanowire device."
The discovery was made almost by accident, when Yao noticed devices he was experimenting with were conducting electricity seemingly all by themselves.
"The ultimate goal is to make large-scale systems," Yao says, explaining that future efforts could use the technology to power homes via nanowire incorporated into wall paint."
ScienceAlert
"They found it buried in the muddy shores of the Potomac River more than three decades ago: a strange "sediment organism" that could do things nobody had ever seen before in bacteria.
This unusual microbe, belonging to the Geobacter genus, was first noted for its ability to produce magnetite in the absence of oxygen, but with time scientists found it could make other things too, like bacterial nanowires that conduct electricity.
For years, researchers have been trying to figure out ways to usefully exploit that natural gift, and they might have just hit pay-dirt with a device they're calling the Air-gen. According to the team, their device can create electricity out of… well, almost nothing.
"We are literally making electricity out of thin air," says electrical engineer Jun Yao from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. "The Air-gen generates clean energy 24/7."
The claim may sound like an overstatement, but a new study by Yao and his team describes how the air-powered generator can indeed create electricity with nothing but the presence of air around it.
It's all thanks to the electrically conductive protein nanowires produced by Geobacter (G. sulfurreducens, in this instance)....the nanowire film is able to adsorb water vapor that exists in the atmosphere, enabling the device to generate a continuous electrical current conducted between the two electrodes.
The team says the charge is likely created by a moisture gradient that creates a diffusion of protons in the nanowire material.
"A maintained moisture gradient, which is fundamentally different to anything seen in previous systems, explains the continuous voltage output from our nanowire device."
The discovery was made almost by accident, when Yao noticed devices he was experimenting with were conducting electricity seemingly all by themselves.
"The ultimate goal is to make large-scale systems," Yao says, explaining that future efforts could use the technology to power homes via nanowire incorporated into wall paint."
ScienceAlert