>From Terry, > If you make your clothes of this: > > http://www.gizmag.com/researchers-developing-solar-technology-that-works-at-night/8574/ > > you can charge your cell phone . . . even at night! > > Terry
>From the article: > As exciting as the potential of the technology is, > not all the hurdles have been passed yet. While the > nanoantennas are easily manufactured, the problem of > creating a way to store or transmit the electricity is > yet to be solved. Although infrared rays create an > alternating current in the nanoantenna, the frequency > of the current switches back and forth ten thousand > billion times a second - much too fast for electrical > appliances, which operate on currents that oscillate > only 60 times a second. The team is exploring ways to > slow that cycling down and has a patent pending on a > variety of potential energy conversion methods. They > anticipate they are only a few years away from creating > the next generation of solar energy collectors. Pretty cool stuff. If I calculated correctly the frequency range of "ten thousand billion times a second" is in the Infrared range. Makes sense. I wonder how those tiny vibrating nanoantennas get around the heat entropy issue. Aren't you supposed to have a heat differential to allow for energy extraction? Wouldn't the technology stop working if it was bathed in ambient heat from every direction? Another thought: If energy in the form of electricity IS carried away, shouldn't the nanoantenna matrix collectively experience a temperature drop? I wonder if they could use a modified version of Dr. Stiffler's LED configuration where the lights are designed to be sensitive to infrared EM as a way to ameliorate the stepping down process. Regards Steven Vincent Johnson www.OrionWorks.com www.zazzle.com/orionworks
