Whole Fabric‐Assisted Thermoelectric Devices for Wearable Electronics

Abstract

Flexible thermoelectric generators (f-TEGs) have demonstrated great potential in wearable self-powered health monitoring devices. However, the existing wearable f-TEGs are neither flexible enough to bend and stretch while maintaining the device's integrity with a good TE performance nor directly compatible with clothes materials. Here, ultraflexible fabric-based thermoelectric generators (uf-TEGs) are proposed with conductive cloth electrodes and elastic fabric substrate. The patterned elastic fabric substrate fits the rigid cuboids well, together with serpentine structured cloth electrodes, rendering uf-TEG with excellent integrity and flexibility, thereby achieving a highly functional TE performance when strain reaches 30% or on arbitrarily shaped heat sources. The uf-TEGs show a large peak power of 64.10 𝝁W for a temperature difference of 33.24 K with a high voltage output of 111.49 mV, which is superior compared to previously reported fabric-based TEG devices, and it is still functional after the water immersion test. Besides the energy harvesting function, with both the temperature sensing ability and the touch perception, this uf-TEG is demonstrated as the electrical skin when mounted on a robot. Moreover, due to the wind-sensitive performance and self-power ability, the uf-TEGs are assembled on cloth as wearable health and motion monitoring devices.

High‐Performance Flexible Pressure Sensor with a Self‐Healing Function for Tactile Feedback

“…The rapid growth of bioelectronics, [1,2] smart home, [3] intelligent robots, [4] and human-machine interfaces [5,6] has greatly promoted the market demand for flexible pressure sensors. Flexible pressure sensors are mainly based on several types of working mechanisms, such as capacitive, [7,8] piezoresistive, [9][10][11] piezoelectric, [12,13] and triboelectric.…”

Gallium-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanostructures for Tunable Transparent Thermoelectric Films

“…Nevertheless, ZnO thin films exhibited a much lower κ when compared to the bulk ZnO, whereby its κ value as low as 1.4 W m –1 K –1 could be achieved for sol–gel-grown ZnO thin film with a thickness of 80 nm and 1.8 W m –1 K –1 for dual Ga- and In-doped ZnO nanostructured thin films . It had been proven that the introduction of structural defects can induce the phonon scattering by defects, nano-interfaces, nanostructure, and dislocations, − ,− which can effectively reduce the κ of ZnO. , However, despite these approaches, it is still a huge challenge to simultaneously optimize the S , σ, and κ for a high power factor (PF) (PF = σ S 2 ) and a high ZT with good stability at high temperature through tunable doping.…”

Wearable thermoelectric generator with vertically aligned PEDOT:PSS and carbon nanotubes thermoelements for energy harvesting

“…Wearable thermoelectric generators (TEGs) are intriguing solid‐state devices that use the Seebeck phenomenon to harvest electrical energy by converting temperature gradients (Δ T ), which are induced by the human body heat and ambient conditions 1,2 . They offer several advantages, including the fact that they are self‐sustaining, require no maintenance, and are portable 3,4 . Considering these benefits, wearable TEGs have been utilized as a sole power source or even as a battery booster in a wide range of wearable electronic devices, including, inter alia, multifunctional electronic skins, 5 electrocardiogram sensors, 6 and glucose sensors 7 .…”

“…1,2 They offer several advantages, including the fact that they are self-sustaining, require no maintenance, and are portable. 3,4 Considering these benefits, wearable TEGs have been utilized as a sole power source or even as a battery booster in a wide range of wearable electronic devices, including, inter alia, multifunctional electronic skins, 5 electrocardiogram sensors, 6 and glucose sensors. 7 Despite their proven merits and potential applications, the design and fabrication of wearable TEGs for such applications are constrained by several factors.…”