By Meagan Treacy, Source: Treehugger

Harvesting kinetic energy to charge gadgets is nothing new. We’ve covered piezoelectric generators that are embedded in sneakers or even backpacks that charge a battery that can then charge your phone. A new nano generator developed by researchers at University of Wisconsin, Sun Yat-sen University in China and the University of Minnesota Duluth could be embedded in the phone itself or in an outer case so that power harvested from vibrations like those created by a moving car could be used to instantly charge the phone. No wires needed.

The researchers describe their device as a mesoporous piezoelectric nanogenerator. University of Wisconsin explains just what that means:

The nanogenerator takes advantage of a common piezoelectric polymer material called polyvinylidene fluoride, or PVDF. Piezoelectric materials can generate electricity from a mechanical force; conversely, they also can generate a mechanical strain from an applied electrical field.

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