Scientists Turned Humid Air Into Renewable Energy By Accident: Here’s How?

Laiba MohsinLast Updated: Jul 3, 2023

Last May, a few researchers from the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Amherst came up with a fantastic piece of news. Guess what? They successfully generated a short but continuous electric current from humidity in the air. The interesting part is that this breakthrough came by surprise. The lead author of this study Professor Jun Yao revealed that they were able to achieve this goal by mistake. However, it is hard to believe such an accident turning humid air into renewable energy. Isn’t it?

How did Humid Air turn Into Renewable Energy?

Prof Jun Yao stated:

“To be frank, it was an accident. We were actually inquisitive in making a simple sensor for humidity in the air. Though for whatever reason, the student working on that forgot to plug in the power.”

Reports claim that the device made from an array of microscopic tubes, or nanowires, was actually producing an electrical signal. The nanowires were actually bumping around inside the tube which resulted in a small charge. The point worth mentioning here is that as the frequency of bumps rose, one end of the tube became differently charged from the other. Yao further elaborated:

“So it’s really like a battery. You have a positive pull and a negative pull, and when you connect them the charge is going to flow.”

This was not it. Yao’s team then conducted a new study jumping from nanowires to use materials with millions of tiny holes, or nanopores. They succeeded to make a device just like the size of a thumbnail generating roughly one microwatt. Yao said that air is everywhere. Even though a thin sheet of the device gives out a very tiny amount of electricity or power, in principle, we can pile multiple layers in vertical space to increase the power. Some scientists are saying that these devices have the potential to produce electricity from thin air. It is quite clear that this achievement hasn’t stopped Yao from dreaming big. So, let’s wait and watch what comes next.

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