Making energy out of, literally, think air

way, the Air-gen technology creates “a spontaneous and sustained charging gradient for continuous electric output” that “opens a wide door for the broad exploration of sustainable electricity from ambient air,” according to a study published in the journals Advanced Materials.

“One day we may get clean electricity literally anywhere, anytime by using Air-gen technology (i.e., the concept of ‘ubiquitous powering’), because air humidity is 24/7 continuous and everywhere,” Jun

Yao, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at UMass Amherst and senior author of the study, said in an email to Motherboard.

“ e basis for broad-scale power is that the air contains a huge amount of electricity,” he said. “So if we make Airgen bigger, we can get largervolume power — that volume can certainly extend to usage for daily-life functions.”

Yao and his colleagues initially stumbled upon the potential of the Air-gen effect a few years ago during an experiment with biologically synthesised nanowires. After successfully producing electricity from the tiny wires, the team began to explore the possibility of repeating the same technique with a host of other materials.

“ e initial discovery was made back in 2020 and was really a serendipitous one—we found that Air-gen made from a speci c material called protein nanowires synthesised by a type of bacterium called Geobacter can continuously