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    Researchers develop new battery-free technology that draws power out of thin air
    Futurology

    Researchers develop new battery-free technology that draws power out of thin air

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    1. PhraseJazz on

      From the article: The air around us is thick with radio frequency signals from Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G networks. These standards are excellent for transmitting data but also represent an untapped energy source. Researchers have developed a new technology to harvest ambient or ‘waste’ RF signals and use them to power small electronic devices.

      The key innovation is a nanoscale spin-rectifier that can convert extremely low-power RF signals of less than -20 dBm into a usable direct current voltage.

    2. RegularBasicStranger on

      Ordinary antennas also can absorb RF signals to turn them into electricity and by amplifying that electricity, it is used to generate sounds in radios.

      So maybe the spin rectifier is about having all the electrons generated to travel around graphene in the same manner so that the electrons do not collide since the electrons keep looping within graphene so if one goes clockwise and the other goes anti clockwise, they will smash into each other and become light and so electricity is not generated.

    4. jackmax9999 on

      “Spin rectifier” lol, you guys are so easy to fool with snake oil. You cannot “upscale” electrical energy. It is voltage times current times time, you can increase one at the cost of others, no physical way around that.

        There isn’t much power in RF waves, e.g. WiFi is 100 mW, and it is dispersed over a large area. You can collect RF energy over long time (see energy harvesting) but that has limited applications. If you try to pump a lot of RF energy it will just start cooking everything in the path of the wave, like a microwave oven. I know wireless power feels like the future, but it’s just not gonna happen.