Annoying static electricity could power up your phone

Ever tried rubbing your phone in your hair to charge it? Doesn't work ... yet. But Georgia Tech professor Zhong Lin Wang has invented a gizmo that harvests static electricity and converts it into energy that can charge your phone. He uses thin sheets of metal, plastic and the funky-sounding polyethylene terephthalate, and when they touch, like a plastic comb on winter-dry hair, they become charged. Then when they flex, they generate a current that can charge a battery. Easy, right? Wrong. So far Wang's nanogenerator has only managed to convert 10 to 15 percent of that energy into electricity — nowhere near enough to charge your smartphone. But if he gets it right, those little shocks could quickly turn into big bucks. [Source]

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