News Materials Science

Salt can turn frozen water into a weak power source

Adding salt to ice boosts its ability to generate electric current when flexed

an image of ice shows bubbles and striations radiating from lower center. Regular ice like this can only generate a weak current, but when slabs of saltwater ice are bent, they can produce a stronger electrical current, known as the flexoelectric effect.

Regular ice, shown here, generates relatively little electrical current when strained. But when a slab of salty ice is bent, liquid brine flowing within generates a stronger electrical current. This phenomenon is known as the flexoelectric effect.

Simon Gakhar/Getty Images

By Nikk Ogasa

Salt, ice and some oomph — these three simple ingredients are all that’s needed to make waste-free electricity, researchers report September 15 in Nature Materials.