New Wearable Tech To Transform Your Body Heat Into Electricity

Providing yet another reason to cheer and look up to your sweaty workout, researchers at North Carolina State University have developed novel prototypes known as Wearable thermoelectric generators (TEGs) that harvest one’s body heat into electricity—which can then be used to power devices as mobile phones.

Teg-Embedded-Tshirt-Armband

The experimental new device is light-weight and conforms to body shape generating power by making use of the temperature differential between one’s body and the ambient air. The technology generates up to 20 µW/cm2 of power without making use of a heat sink, claim researchers.

The TEG is a supply of renewable energy that is only limited by your ability to move. It is incredibly light, easy to wear; being thin- only 2 millimeters and one cm squared. The researchers incorporated TEG into T-shirts where they found that the T-shirt TEGs were capable of generating 6 µW/cm2 – or as much as 16 µW/cm2 of power if a person is running.

TEG-NCSU

The new design begins with a layer of thermally conductive material that rests on the skin and spreads out the heat. The conductive material is topped with a polymer layer which prevents the heat from dissipating through to the outside air. This forces the body heat to pass through a centrally-located TEG. Heat not converted into electricity passes through the TEG into an outer layer of thermally conductive material, which rapidly dissipates the heat.

Researchers further aim to improve on wearable technologies for long-term health monitoring, such as devices that track heart health or monitor physical and environmental variables to predict and prevent a host of other diseases.

The paper was published in the journal Applied Energy.

Source: Lightweight, Wearable Tech Efficiently Converts Body Heat to Electricity | NC State News

Replies

  • Abhishek Havanur
    Abhishek Havanur
    can you please tell that what type of material is used for thermoelectric generators?
  • Rucha Wankhede
    Rucha Wankhede
    The focus of the research seems to be more on exploration of the relevant parameters for maximizing the wearable TEG power output from the body heat while maintaining the body comfort. Hence the research news didn't specifically mention the particulars about the type of material used. But for more, you can go through the original published paper- #-Link-Snipped-#
    Hope it helps.
  • Abhishek Havanur
    Abhishek Havanur
    tha
    Rucha Wankhede
    The focus of the research seems to be more on exploration of the relevant parameters for maximizing the wearable TEG power output from the body heat while maintaining the body comfort. Hence the research news didn't specifically mention the particulars about the type of material used. But for more, you can go through the original published paper- #-Link-Snipped-#
    Hope it helps.
    Thanks for the information.

You are reading an archived discussion.

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