A Supercapacitor in Tent's Clothing

Imagine going camping and being able to power a heater with your tent. Or what if a refugee family could charge a cellphone with their tent to inform others that they are safe, or a military unit could charge life- saving equipment without having to carry heavy batteries?

These ideas could soon be reality, thanks to Jonathan Chen, professor of textiles and apparel, and his team of collaborators, who have been working on an invention to achieve just that. Using his expertise in materials science and engineering, Chen has created a fabric that stores energy, whether from solar cells, the kinetic energy of the tent flapping in the wind or the friction of clothing rubbing together. Last year, Chen patented the technology and teamed up with a recent UT Austin graduate to form a startup company to license it. The team is currently working to make the fabric lighter and to increase its power output.

How the technology works:

Carbon fiber components allow for a fabric that is both flexible and strong, with a tensile strength about 5,000 times that of standard tent fabrics, giving it more strength than Kevlar.

Layers of conductive fabric outside help harvest energy (i.e., from solar cells, kinetic energy or friction).

Layers of electrode fabric, separated by a specialized knit fabric, store the energy.

Once energy is collected and stored, the fabric’s supercapacitor can help charge and power electronics.