Packaging so smart it energizes itself

Smart technology deserves smart packaging and a Clemson professor and an alumnus are combining forces to develop packaging so smart it can energize itself.  Gregory Batt, director of the Clemson Package Testing Laboratory, can explain how copper tape is used to generate electrical charges in triboelectric devices.  Batt and James Gilbert at Purdue University have received a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to study triobelectric generators to understand the mechanisms behind contact electrification, the basis of triboelectric devices.  Triboelectric energy harvesters convert mechanical energy to electrical energy, which is collected and used to charge re-chargeable energy cells to power small electronic devices.