A team of mechanical engineers from Chung-Ang University, Massachusetts General Hospital, LS Materials and Yonsei University has found that a hand-held cylinder containing crumpled aluminum foil balls is capable of producing enough electricity when shaken to light a small LED grid. In their paper published in the journal Advanced Science, the group describes other materials used in the cylinder and possible uses for such a device.

Prior research has shown that a wide variety of materials can be used to generate static electricity, and that some constructions can capture that electricity. Researchers have suggested such devices could be useful as the power needs of personal electronics decrease. In this new effort, the researchers have looked to aluminum foil as a material for generating static electricity and capturing it to power an external device.

The device the team built is shaped as a cylinder with a cap on the top and bottom—about the size of a Pringle’s can. The tube was made using an acrylic substrate covered with a polytetrafluoroethylene layer. The caps, which serve as electrodes, were made of aluminum. The team then crumpled three wads of aluminum foil into balls and placed them inside the tube.

Rutgers University scientists have devised a highly accurate method for creating coatings of biologically active materials for a variety of medical products. Such a technique could pave the way for a new era of transdermal medication, including shot-free vaccinations, the researchers said.

Writing in Nature Communications, the researchers described a new approach to electrospray deposition, an industrial spray-coating process. Essentially, the team developed a way to better control the target region within a spray zone as well as the electrical properties of microscopic particles that are being deposited. The greater command of those two properties means that more of the spray is likely to hit its microscopic target.

In electrospray deposition, manufacturers apply a high voltage to a flowing liquid, such as a biopharmaceutical, converting it into fine particles. Each of those droplets evaporates as it travels to a target area, depositing a solid precipitate from the original solution.