An electric generator that is bendable, stretchable

Researchers from Columbia Engineering and the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a unique electric generator that is optically transparent, extremely light and very bendable and stretchable.

This could lead to develop a wearable device, perhaps integrated into clothing, to convert energy from body movement to electricity and power wearable sensors or medical devices or perhaps supply enough energy to charge cell phones in pockets, the team reported.

In the first experimental observation of piezo-electricity, the team converted mechanical energy into electricity from the two-dimensional molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) material.

Piezo-electricity is a well-known effect in which stretching or compressing a material causes it to generate an electrical voltage.

"The new observation provides a new property for 2D materials such as molybdenum disulfide, opening the potential for new types of mechanically controlled electronic devices," said James Hone, professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia University.

The paper was published in the journal Nature.