Skip to main content

New nanomaterial scavenges energy from its environment, opening new possibilities

by Joy Green, Jun 30
1 minute read

A completely new way of generating electricity has recently been discovered by engineers at MIT. They found that they could use an organic solvent to simply draw electrons out of carbon nanoparticles. This generates a current that can be used to drive chemical reactions, or even to power micro- or nanoscale robots, the researchers say.

close up photo of water dew

So what

This work opens up two interesting possibilities. The first is creating a polymer material that builds and regenerates itself (via chemical reactions) from carbon dioxide and light, in a similar way to plants. The second, longer term possibility, is to allow nanobots to be built that can scavenge energy from their environment, instead of needing their own energy storage – which could really significantly extend the range of applications for them.

Sources

Details

by Joy Green Spotted 37 signals

Joy is a Principal Futurist at Forum for the Future.

Have you spotted a signal of change?

Register to receive the latest from the Futures Centre.
Sign up

  • 0
  • Share

Join discussion

Related signals

Our use of cookies

We use necessary cookies to make our site work. We'd also like to set optional analytics cookies to help us improve it. We won't set optional cookies unless you enable them. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences.

For more detailed information about the cookies we use, see our Cookies page.

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions.

Analytics cookies

We'd like to set Google Analytics cookies to help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. The cookies collect information in a way that does not directly identify anyone. For more information on how these cookies work, please see our 'Cookies page'.

>