New study explores ‘self-sustainable’ wearables
A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications, titled: ‘A self-sustainable wearable multi-modular e-textile bioenergy microgrid system’, has investigated how energy harvesting and storage devices can be integrated into “efficient, autonomous and sustainable” wearable systems.
According to the study’s 11 co-authors, the published findings progress the wearable conversation beyond early multi-input hybrid flexible devices by presenting an e-textile microgrid which relies solely on human activity to work synergistically, harvesting biochemical and biomechanical energy using sweat-based biofuel cells and triboelectric generators. These regulate the harvested energy by way of supercapacitors for high-power output.
The University of California San Diego Center of Wearable Sensors- and National Research Foundation of Korea-supported study further found that, through energy budgeting, the proposed e-textile system can efficiently power either liquid crystal displays continuously or a sweat-sensor electrochromic display system in pulsed sessions, with “half the booting time and triple the runtime”, over a 10-minute exercise session.
Significantly, the authors concluded by recommending the expansion of the microgrid concept “from on-body to in-body applications”, in order to utilise the body’s own biofuel and biomechanical movements in future studies.
Read the full article via open access here.
Image: Alexander Ruiz via Unsplash.
