NEW HIGH-TECH 'YARN' COULD MAKE ELECTRICITY Miami - Researchers in the United States and South Korea have invented a new kind of yarn that can generate electricity when it is stretched or twisted, said a study on Thursday. The material, called "twistron," could be used to harvest energy from the motion of ocean waves, or from changes in temperature, said the report in the journal Science. "The easiest way to think of twistron harvesters is, you have a piece of yarn, you stretch it, and out comes electricity," said co-author Carter Haines, associate research professor at the University of Texas, Dallas. The yarn is built from carbon nanotubes, which are hollow cylinders of carbon 10 000 times smaller in diameter than a human hair, according to the report. In order to generate electricity, the yarns must be either submerged in or coated with an ionically conducting material, or electrolyte, which can be as simple as a mixture of ordinary ta...
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