Electromechanical converter

General

In Nanosystems the power densities that are to expect to be (at least) possible with
electrostatics based electromechanical conversion at the nanoscale are conservatively estimated.
The power densities predicted to be at least possible already are unbelievably high.

Porting macroscale electrostatic machines to the nanoscale

The scaling law for electrostatic performance is very favorable for such miniaturization.

• Voltages become much lower (down to ~1V like in computer chips) – this still gives massive electric fields over nanoscale distances.
• Currents become much higher due to massive device parallelity

Designs that might need not much changes:

• pelletron
• Wimshurst machine
• Lord Kelvin Replenisher [1]

Machines needing obvious modifications for the nanoscale:

• Kelvin water dropper
  Could that be done in a nanoscale version with shooting solid-state charged pellets?
• Van de Graaff generator:
  Charge seperation would be done in rather different way.
  Well, avoiding rubber (since not a gemstone-like compound), it would essentially become a similar to a pelletron. (replicate nanoscale charge separation mechanism)

Alternative contacting

To avoid the need for graphite tunneling contacts which need quite some surface and dissipate some power a reziprocating drive could be electrically connected with flexing nanotube connections. The flex must be low enough to not disturb the electric properties (conductivity) of the nabotube too much.

References

• Energy conversion
• (wiki-TODO: Add reference to electrostatic motor in nanosystems)
• Graphene, Nanotubes, Semi gemstone-like structure
• Non mechanical technology path

Related

• Power density – High performance of gem-gum technology

External links

Here is a website with an extreme detailed collection of information regarding the history of electrostatic machines:
Electrostatic Machines written by by Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz.
Especially interresting seem

• The Lord Kelvin "Replenisher"
• The Gläser machine (or Lewandowski machine) – cylindric Wimshurst machine

On wikipedia:

• Category:Electrostatic_generators
• Wikipedia: Electrostatic generator

Videos:

• Cylindric Wimshurst machine by Antonio Queiroz – This one is powerful and compact – nice
• Sparks from cylindrical Wimshurst machine by Antonio Queiroz
• Youtube channel of Antonio Queiroz featuring lots of electrostatic machines: [2]
• Mini Lord Kelvin Replenisher – made form drinking cup and aluminum foil