Sustainably powering wearable electronics solely by biomechanical energy.
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.
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.|Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key laboratory of the Ministry of Education &International Center of Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
Jie
J
Wang
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Shengming
S
Li
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Fang
F
Yi
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Yunlong
Y
Zi
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key laboratory of the Ministry of Education &International Center of Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
Jun
J
Lin
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
Xiaofeng
X
Wang
Electronic Materials Research Laboratory, Key laboratory of the Ministry of Education &International Center of Dielectric Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
Youlong
Y
Xu
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.|Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences; National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), Beijing 100083, China.
Zhong Lin
ZL
Wang
Nat Nanotechnol. 2014 May;9(5):397-404
24681776
Science. 1998 Jun 12;280(5370):1744-6
9624050
Nat Commun. 2015 May 14;6:7149
25971194
ACS Nano. 2015 May 26;9(5):5577-84
25965297
Nat Commun. 2014 Mar 04;5:3426
24594501
Adv Mater. 2015 Apr 17;27(15):2472-8
25736078
Science. 2008 Feb 8;319(5864):807-10
18258914
Nat Commun. 2015 Aug 14;6:8031
26271603
Adv Mater. 2015 Apr 8;27(14):2340-7
25727070
Adv Mater. 2014 Oct 22;26(39):6720-8
25146891
ACS Nano. 2013 Dec 23;7(12):11263-71
24266595
Nat Nanotechnol. 2016 Jun;11(6):566-72
26999482
Nature. 2016 Jan 28;529(7587):509-14
26819044
ACS Nano. 2016 Feb 23;10(2):2528-35
26824304
Nat Chem. 2015 Jan;7(1):19-29
25515886
Nat Commun. 2015 Dec 11;6:8975
26656252
Adv Mater. 2015 Sep 2;27(33):4830-6
26175123
Nat Commun. 2015 Sep 25;6:8376
26406279
Nat Biotechnol. 2014 Jul;32(7):642-3
25004232
Sci Adv. 2016 Apr 15;2(4):e1501856
27152354