T-shirts developed that could charge mobile phones Published duration 10 July 2012

image caption The researchers turned the t-shirt fabric into a 'supercapacitor'

Scientists at the University of South Carolina have found a way to use a cheap T-shirt to store electrical power.

It could pave the way for clothes that are able to charge phones and other devices.

Experts predict that new technologies including roll-up smartphones and laptops will be on the market soon.

These developments would spur on the need for "flexible energy storage", said the professor behind the project

Xiaodong Li, a professor of mechanical engineering at the university teamed up with post-doctorate researcher Lihong Bao to find a solution.

The pair wrote up their findings for the Advanced Materials journal

They used a T-shirt bought from a local discount store, which was soaked in a solution of fluoride, dried and then baked in an oxygen-free environment at high temperature.

Hybrid fabric

The fibres in the fabric converted from cellulose to activated carbon during the process, but the material remained flexible.

By using small parts of the fabric as an electrode, the researchers showed that the material could be made to act as a capacitor.

Capacitors store an electrical charge and are components of nearly every electronic device on the market.

By coating the individual fibres of the carbonised fabric with manganese oxide just a nanometre thick, the electrode performance of the fabric was further enhanced.

image caption Tests on sections of the t-shirt suggested it was capable of being recharged thousands of time

"This created a stable, high-performing supercapacitor," said Prof Li.

The hybrid supercapacitors proved resilient - even after thousands of charge-discharge cycles their performance did not diminish more than 5%, the researchers said.

"By stacking these supercapacitors up, we should be able to charge portable electronic devices such as cell phones," Prof Li added.