An Incredible New Crystal Can Transform Light Into Mechanical Work

[ZiprHead]

An Incredible New Crystal Can Transform Light Into Mechanical Work

The breakthrough could remove our need for bulky batteries—and all the thermal management that comes with it.

www.popularmechanics.com

• Today’s mobile technology is powered by batteries that convert chemical reactions to energy, but scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.
• To do this, the research team embedded photomechanical crystals into a polymer, which could then bend and lift when exposed to light, forming a kind of actuator or motor.
• One day, such a material could be powered simply by a laser, completely removing any need for a bulky battery of cumbersome thermal management systems.

I just ran across this. Gamechanger or boondoggle?

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

Sounds like a boondoggle. What powers the laser? Remember years ago the amazing miniture turbines run on alcohol that would replace cell phone batteries etc?

 

[steve_bank]

Sounds plausible to me if the goal is to use ambient light. Depends of course on efficiency.

There have been chips out since the9 0s to harvest ambient RF energy to power sensors. Albeit for low power applications.

There are mats that use piezoelectric materials to create electricity when you walk on one.

Energy harvesting - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Energy harvesting (EH) – also known as power harvesting, energy scavenging, or ambient power – is the process by which energy is derived from external sources (e.g., solar power, thermal energy, wind energy, salinity gradients, and kinetic energy, also known as ambient energy), then stored for use by small, wireless autonomous devices, like those used in wearable electronics, condition monitoring,[1] and wireless sensor networks.[2]

A potato battery is environmentally friendly.

How to Create a Potato Battery: 13 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow

Did you ever think that you could use a vegetable as a battery? Batteries produce electricity by passing electrons back and forth between two metal plates What if you didn't have a battery around, but had a potato? Well, potatoes contain...

www.wikihow.com

 

[lpetrich]

A laser will indeed need to be powered, but such a device may eventually be able to run on ambient light. If so, that would make it useful for some applications.

Most existing electromechanical devices are electromagnetic: an electromagnet moves a permanent magnet or another electromagnet. That's what's in electric motors and loudspeakers, though some loudspeakers are electrostatic.

But there are alternative sorts of electromechanical devices, like devices that use  Electrostriction That is where an applied electric field causes an object to change its shape. Not very much, but enough to be useful in some applications.

 Magnetostriction is that effect with magnetism, and "photostriction" is with light. What the OP linked to is an article on materials that do photostriction. Such devices can still be electromechanical, like using an electromagnet to make a magnetic field for magnetostriction or using a laser or an LED to make light for photostriction, or else using ambient light that is controlled by an electrically-controlled liquid crystal, like in a liquid-crystal display.

 

[lpetrich]

For powering a cellphone with light, photovoltaic cells would do MUCH better, though they seem to be rare in that application -- I don't recall ever seeing one with any PV cells, though I've used calculators with PV cells in them.

So what might photostriction be used for?

Loudspeakers are my first thought. They are almost always electromagnetic or electrostatic, but one can construct ones that use electrostriction or electromagnet-run magnetostriction or the sorts of electrically-controlled photostriction that I'd mentioned earlier.

Electrically-operated valves are just about always electromagnetic, but I've seen work on electrostatic microvalves, and electrostriction, magnetostriction, and photostriction may also be used in such valves.

 

[lpetrich]

There might be some use case for a photostriction device that uses whatever light it receives without any electricity involved, but I'm out of ideas.

 

[Worldtraveller]

Cell phones need too much power to be effectively powered off solar. I have some small solar chargers to keep my phone running longer when I know I'll be out (like on a hike) and will be using my phone for photos, tracking my distance, etc. And when I want to be sure it has power in case of emergency.

My biggest portable charger folds up to the size of a cell phone, and has 3 panels. Each panel only generates 1.25 W of power though, in ideal conditions.

 

[Elixir]

“scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.”

Wow.

I had one of these more than 65 years ago.

 

[bilby]

Cell phones need too much power to be effectively powered off solar.

Yup. Cities, too. But you can't persuade the neo-luddites of that, so they insist on wasting vast resources (thereby fucking up the environment) on the futile attempt to do so. Because they have an irrational fear of the only actually effective solution.

 

[bilby]

“scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.”

Wow.

I had one of these more than 65 years ago.

View attachment 44549

That device converts light into heat; And then converts heat into mechanical work.

If it didn't, it would spin in the opposite direction.

 

[Elixir]

“scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.”

Wow.

I had one of these more than 65 years ago.

View attachment 44549

That device converts light into heat; And then converts heat into mechanical work.

If it didn't, it would spin in the opposite direction.

Yabut it’s so elegant. The only moving part is the output shaft assembly!

 

[bilby]

“scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.”

Wow.

I had one of these more than 65 years ago.

View attachment 44549

That device converts light into heat; And then converts heat into mechanical work.

If it didn't, it would spin in the opposite direction.

Yabut it’s so elegant. The only moving part is the output shaft assembly!

The only moving part large enough to see.

There are plenty of moving parts you can't see.

 

[lpetrich]

View attachment 44549

That's a  Crookes radiometer

It's not the same thing as a material that changes its shape when light is shined on it -- photostriction.

[1503.01642] Photostrictive materials

Light-matter interactions that lead to nonthermal changes in size of the sample constitute a photostrictive effect in many compounds. The photostriction phenomenon was observed in four main groups of materials, ferroelectrics, polar, and non-polar semiconductors, as well as in organic-based materials that are reviewed here.

Just What Is Photostriction? - Electro-Active Materials | Montana State University - "The basic definition of photostriction is the generation of strain by irradiation of light."

Like  Electrostriction and  Magnetostriction

 

[thebeave]

“scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.”

Wow.

I had one of these more than 65 years ago.

View attachment 44549

That device converts light into heat; And then converts heat into mechanical work.

If it didn't, it would spin in the opposite direction.

Yabut it’s so elegant. The only moving part is the output shaft assembly!

I forgot about those....they're pretty cool. My cousin had one when I was little kid. Just checked out Amazon. They have tons for sale, in the $20 - $30 price range. I think I'll have to get me one for my office desk. As if I need something else to distract me from getting my work done...*

* curse you IIDB, cute cat videos and porn!!

 

[Worldtraveller]

Cell phones need too much power to be effectively powered off solar.

Yup. Cities, too. But you can't persuade the neo-luddites of that, so they insist on wasting vast resources (thereby fucking up the environment) on the futile attempt to do so. Because they have an irrational fear of the only actually effective solution.

You're so close. The reason I say cell phones can't be powered by solar is the restrictions of still being portable. I can, and have, run my cell phone for over two weeks using just the solar charger. Cities, and most infrastructure CAN be powered by solar. It's not a hard calculation to make. It's the point at which it becomes cost effective compared to currently subsidized and government protected (because of lobbyists, mostly) energy production that matters most, unfortunately.

Having said that, I get your point, and don't have anything against nuclear power, but you really need to get over your obsession.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

An Incredible New Crystal Can Transform Light Into Mechanical Work

The breakthrough could remove our need for bulky batteries—and all the thermal management that comes with it.

www.popularmechanics.com

• Today’s mobile technology is powered by batteries that convert chemical reactions to energy, but scientists from CU-Boulder successfully turned light directly into mechanical work.
• To do this, the research team embedded photomechanical crystals into a polymer, which could then bend and lift when exposed to light, forming a kind of actuator or motor.
• One day, such a material could be powered simply by a laser, completely removing any need for a bulky battery of cumbersome thermal management systems.

I just ran across this. Gamechanger or boondoggle?

If the link is PopularMechanics... "clickbait" would be the term. Certainly, there is likely all sorts of pure science research out there, and attempts to make some huge breakthrough somewhere. It's ability to actually work in the real world, however, would be extremely doubtful.

 

[lpetrich]

Photostriction doesn't seem like a good alternative to photovoltaic cells, and it's hard for me to think of a good use for photostriction. Where one wants a microvalve but does not want to send electricity to it? One could then control that source with laser light transmitted with a fiber-optic cable.

 

[steve_bank]

A solution in need of a problem.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

Sounds like a boondoggle. What powers the laser?

Cold fusion.

 

[ZiprHead]

Sounds like a boondoggle. What powers the laser?

Cold fusion.

I thought it was pixie dust.