Portable electronic devices powered by human body heat are another step closer to reality following a significant design innovation.
You may not have thought about your body heat as a potential source of renewable energy that can be tapped. But with the rapidly increasing need for batteries in our increasingly electrified world and the resulting strain on natural resources, experts have been exploring this option for a while now.
Sources for wearable electronics, it appears, exist. However, issues related to commercializing the technology have yet to be fully resolved.
One of the challenges is making these wearable devices elastic enough to be comfortable. Researchers at Queensland University of Technology in Australia have addressed this by creating a new, ultra-thin, pliable film that enables comfortable and efficient wearability.
How do wearable thermoelectric devices function?
On this breakthrough, Professor Wenyi Chen elaborates.
“However, challenges such as limited adaptability, intricate production processes, high costs, and inadequate performance have prevented these devices from being deployed commercially on a large scale.”
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The Queensland University of Technology-based team furthered the concept by introducing compact crystals called ‘nanobinders’, which create a consistent layer of bismuth telluride sheets.
“We have successfully designed a highly advanced, flexible thermoelectric material, in the form of an A4-sized film, which exhibits record-breaking thermoelectric performance, while also being highly flexible, scalable, and cost-effective, making it one of the top flexible thermoelectrics currently available,” said Professor Chen.
This process utilized the ‘solvothermal synthesis’ method, a technique that involves creating nanocrystals under high pressure and temperature in a solvent.
The film was then printed on a large scale, which allows for mass production, before being heated to almost the melting point to bond the particles together.
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Chen, along with the QUT team, envisions a broad spectrum of potential applications for the technology.
In addition to enabling wearable devices, such as smartwatches, it could also be used to cool electronic chips – fitting inside tight spaces like smartphones and computers to help them run more efficiently.
system,” adds Chen.
