Don’t Forget to Charge Your Phone with Your…Sweater?!?

A sweater that powers electronics could soon become reality, thanks to a research group led by Chalmers University of Technology. Watch this video to see the team’s ordinary silk thread, coated with a conductive plastic material, that shows promise for turning textiles into electricity generators.

“We found the missing piece of the puzzle to make an optimal thread – a type of polymer that had recently been discovered. It has outstanding performance stability in contact with air, while at the same time having a very good ability to conduct electricity. By using polymers, we don't need any rare earth metals, which are common in electronics," says Mariavittoria Craighero , doctoral student at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.