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One promising class of devices works by generating triboelectricity, also known as static electricity.

This process, known as triboelectricity, is the same reason that you can rub a balloon on your head and marvel as it sticks there, hands-free.

“The more I work with triboelectricity, the more exciting it gets, and the more applications it might have,” says nanotechnologist Zhong Lin Wang of Georgia Tech.

When two different materials repeatedly collide with, or rub against, one another, the surface of one material can steal electrons from the other, accumulating a charge, a phenomenon known as triboelectricity.

Nearly all materials, both natural and synthetic, are capable of creating triboelectricity, giving researchers a wide range of choices for designing gadgets.