Sustainably powering wearable electronics solely by biomechanical energy
Open Access
- 28 September 2016
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Springer Science and Business Media LLC in Nature Communications
- Vol. 7 (1), 12744
- https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12744
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.This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
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