Sustainably powering wearable electronics solely by biomechanical energy

Abstract

Harvesting biomechanical energy is an important route for providing electricity to sustainably drive wearable electronics, which currently still use batteries and therefore need to be charged or replaced/disposed frequently. Here we report an approach that can continuously power wearable electronics only by human motion, realized through a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with optimized materials and structural design. Fabricated by elastomeric materials and a helix inner electrode sticking on a tube with the dielectric layer and outer electrode, the TENG has desirable features including flexibility, stretchability, isotropy, weavability, water-resistance and a high surface charge density of 250 μC m−2. With only the energy extracted from walking or jogging by the TENG that is built in outsoles, wearable electronics such as an electronic watch and fitness tracker can be immediately and continuously powered.

Triboelectric Nanogenerator: A Foundation of the Energy for the New Era

“…[41] Moreover, soft materials such as silicone rubber tend to exhibit more intimate contact under the same applied force and thus have higher output charge density when used in TENGs. [59] Their shape-adaptive TENG can be transformed into wearable designs such as shoe soles and woven cloth, and it has been demonstrated to harvest electricity from human walking or jogging for powering wearable electronics such as an electronic watch and a fitness tracker. [59] Their shape-adaptive TENG can be transformed into wearable designs such as shoe soles and woven cloth, and it has been demonstrated to harvest electricity from human walking or jogging for powering wearable electronics such as an electronic watch and a fitness tracker.…”

“…[12] Wang et al [48] Copyright 2016, Royal Society of Chemistry. [59] Copyright 2016, Springer Nature. Reproduced with permission.…”

Multifunctional Sensor Based on Translational‐Rotary Triboelectric Nanogenerator

“…[10] The energy harvesting technologies that can provide continuous power supply [11][12][13][14][15][16] and selfpowered sensors that can directly transfer the detect information into electrical signals even without power [7,17,18] are the idea approaches to meet the requirements.Based on the triboelectric effect and the electrostatic induction, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) invented by Wang and co-workers [19] have a few remarkable advantages, such as flexibility, light weight, easy integration. On the other hand, IoTs also expects the sensors can continuously work for long hours without maintenance.…”

Toward Soft Skin‐Like Wearable and Implantable Energy Devices

“…[149] The wearable power source is realized via a TENG with a rationally designed helix-belt contact structure, which is then packaged with a layer of silicone rubber for waterproofing and anticorrosive purposes. The surface charge density of the helix-belt structure is about 250 mC, and the output charges can be linearly adjusted according to the load of the electronics by using multiple TENG tubes in parallel.…”

“…The self-charging power system is also able to support the electronic device and charge the LIB simultaneously (Figure 19i). [149] Another energy mangement system uses textile based energy devices to collect outdoor sunshine and random body motion energies simultaneously in an energy storage unit. [150] Both types of energies can be easily converted into electricity by using fiber-shaped dye-sensitized solar cells (for solar energy) and fiber-shaped triboelectric nanogenerators (for random body motion energy), and then further stored as chemical energy in fiber-shaped supercapacitors.…”