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Electricity Production with Feathers

작성자대외협력과 작성일2019.06.26 09:44 조회67



Research conducted by CNU senior students has shown that birds' feathers can produce electricity. In addition, this research has attracted considerable attention from international academic journals as it was published in a renowned international scholarly journal.

According to CNU, Cho Yu-jang and Lee Kyung-soo, the senior members of the research team of Professor Park Jong-jin (School of Polymer Science and Engineering) co-conducted research with a research team of Professor Choi Deok-hyun (Kyung Hee University) for the past two years as first authors of equal contribution and published their research accomplishments in Nano Energy (Impact Factor: 13.12), a top 1.5 (JCR) journal in the Energy field in this year’s May issue.

They found that birds’ feathers with naturally multi-layered nanostructures evolved variously in nature can achieve higher efficiencies in wider friction areas and lower wind speeds compared to conventional polymeric frictional materials.

For example, when an eagle descends at high speed for hunting, the body's volume and wings contract as much as possible to reduce the friction area. On the other hand, migratory birds like wild geese that fly for a long time spread their wings as much as possible to increase lift, to raise the friction force. In other words, the birds' feathers have a unique structure that changes with the wind speed, resulting in much higher triboelectric production efficiency.

The research also proved that birds' feathers can produce up to 10 times more power than conventional polymeric materials.

Particularly, this paper has also attracted attention to the fact that it reported for the first time in academia that aerodynamic friction surface changes occur according to the multi-layer nanostructure of various feathers.

In addition, the research proved that the natural dye ingredient of "hematoxylin" increases the energy harvesting efficiency of static electricity by 20% when it is coated on feathers and the surface quality is changed. Furthermore, the researchers have attempted research on positive charge materials for the first time in the field, where only studies on negative charge materials have previously been conducted. The research has shown that the amount of existing positive charge materials expand the efficiency of triboelectric production.

Professor Park said, "It is very meaningful that undergraduate students participated in the experiment and published the research accomplishments in an international journal with an impact index of 10 or more, as the first author and two years of efforts led to the discovery of new phenomena."