U.S. scientists have developed a microfiber fabric that generates its own electricity, making enough current to recharge a cell phone or ensure that a small MP3 music player never runs out of power.

If made into a shirt, the fabric could harness power from its wearer simply from the movement of walking around or even from a slight breeze, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"The fiber-based nanogenerator would be a simple and economical way to harvest energy from the physical movement," Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who led the study, said in a statement.

The nanogenerator takes advantage of the semiconductive properties of zinc oxide nanowires--tiny wires 1,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair--embedded into the fabric. The wires are formed into pairs of microscopic brushlike structures, shaped like a brush for a baby bottle.

One of the fibers in each pair is coated with gold and serves as an electrode. As the bristles brush together through a person's body movement, the wires convert the mechanical motion into electricity.

"When a nanowire bends, it has an electric effect," Wang said in a telephone interview. "What the fabric does is, it translates the mechanical movement of your body into electricity."

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