Nanogenerator-Based Self-Powered Sensors for Wearable and Implantable Electronics

Abstract

<jats:p>Wearable and implantable electronics (WIEs) are more and more important and attractive to the public, and they have had positive influences on all aspects of our lives. As a bridge between wearable electronics and their surrounding environment and users, sensors are core components of WIEs and determine the implementation of their many functions. Although the existing sensor technology has evolved to a very advanced level with the rapid progress of advanced materials and nanotechnology, most of them still need external power supply, like batteries, which could cause problems that are difficult to track, recycle, and miniaturize, as well as possible environmental pollution and health hazards. In the past decades, based upon piezoelectric, pyroelectric, and triboelectric effect, various kinds of nanogenerators (NGs) were proposed which are capable of responding to a variety of mechanical movements, such as breeze, body drive, muscle stretch, sound/ultrasound, noise, mechanical vibration, and blood flow, and they had been widely used as self-powered sensors and micro-nanoenergy and blue energy harvesters. This review focuses on the applications of self-powered generators as implantable and wearable sensors in health monitoring, biosensor, human-computer interaction, and other fields. The existing problems and future prospects are also discussed.</jats:p>

Wearable Sensing and Telehealth Technology with Potential Applications in the Coronavirus Pandemic

“…However, all of these methods still need external power which is hard to miniaturize. Consequently, technologies that harvest energy from the human body or surrounding environment [133] should be further developed and integrated with BP monitoring devices. An alternative way is to use a wrist watch [134,135] for daytime monitoring and a sleeping cushion [127] for overnight use (Fig.…”

Polarized Water Driven Dynamic PN Junction-Based Direct-Current Generator

“…Sustainable energy harvesting from the environment is always required to meet the increasing energy demand of modern information society [ 1 – 5 ], especially the burgeoning Internet of Things (IoTs) and bioelectronic devices [ 6 – 21 ]. As a clean and abundant mechanical source, water flow energy is the most potential candidate in our daily life.…”

Integration of a soft dielectric composite into a cantilever beam for mechanical energy harvesting, comparison between capacitive and triboelectric transducers

“…Thus, we have shown that working at 40 Hz, 3.9 g and a bias of 0.30 , a power density of 1 is harvestable. In summary, the triboelectric harvester appears more suitable for powering small devices, so the space requirement must be limited and therefore the environmental conditions are known 27 . On the other hand, the capacitive harvester appears more suitable for recovery on large structures where pressure and humidity conditions can fluctuate (wave energy recovery 28 for example) and where the size of the harvester (presence of a polarization battery) is not important.…”