The sight of snowfall excites us all. A lot of people even long for years to witness it but, who knew it would be capable of producing electricity someday. Scientists from UCLA have developed a low-cost device which is thin, flexible and looks small in size. Researchers say the device is a snow-based triboelectric which can also be called snow TENG.

A charged electron flows from a positive end to a negative end and snow being positively charged will get captured by silicone which consists of oxygen and silicon atoms, combined with hydrogen, carbon and also other elements. So, when the snow falls, it will come in contact with the silicone surface and generate a charge in order to release electricity.

A UCLA assistant researcher of chemistry and biochemistry, Maher El-Kady mentioned about the performance capacity of the device in a write-up by UCLA Newsroom as he stated: “While snow likes to give up electrons, the performance of the device depends on the efficiency of the other material at extracting these electrons. “After testing a large number of materials including aluminum foils and Teflon, we found that silicone produces more charge than any other material.”

It has been said that the device generates its own power and can work in remote areas and also does not require batteries. It can be used for multiple reasons like monitoring an athlete’s performance, skiing, and various kinds of winter sports.

Scientists and researchers are coming up with different innovations every now and then and with the addition of snow TENG, we have got another reason to be proud of how advanced the world has become.