A highly shape-adaptive, stretchable design based on conductive liquid for energy harvesting and self-powered biomechanical monitoring

By Fang Yi, Xiaofeng Wang, Simiao Niu, Shengming Li, Yajiang Yin, Keren Dai, G. Zhang, Long Lin, Zhen Wen, Hengyu Guo and 7 more. Science Advances, 2016

294 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Researchers report a scalable approach for highly deformable and stretchable energy harvesters and self-powered sensors. The rapid growth of deformable and stretchable electronics calls for a deformable and stretchable power source. We report a scalable approach for energy harvesters and self-powered sensors that can be highly deformable and stretchable. With conductive liquid contained in a polymer cover, a shape-adaptive triboelectric nanogenerator (saTENG) unit can effectively harvest energy in various working modes. The saTENG can maintain its performance under a strain of as large as 300%. The saTENG is so flexible that it can be conformed to any three-dimensional and curvilinear surface. We demonstrate applications of the saTENG as a wearable power source and self-powered sensor to monitor biomechanical motion. A bracelet-like saTENG worn on the wrist can light up more than 80 light-emitting diodes. Owing to the highly scalable manufacturing process, the saTENG can be easily applied for large-area energy harvesting. In addition, the saTENG can be extended to extract energy from mechanical motion using flowing water as the electrode. This approach provides a new prospect for deformable and stretchable power sources, as well as self-powered sensors, and has potential applications in various areas such as robotics, biomechanics, physiology, kinesiology, and entertainment.

Subfields: Biomedical Engineering, Cognitive Neuroscience, Mechanical Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f2fda0a4282a606e48e8cc258df2a020e2d680fb

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biomedical Engineering

1. Chengkuo Lee
2. Zhong Lin Wang
3. Xinge Guo
4. Long Liu
5. Jianjun Luo
6. Tianyiyi He
7. Qiongfeng Shi
8. Feng Wen

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Chengkuo Lee
2. Xinge Guo
3. Long Liu
4. Tianyiyi He
5. Feng Wen
6. Qiongfeng Shi
7. Jianxiong Zhu
8. Bowei Dong

In Mechanical Engineering

1. Chengkuo Lee
2. Long Liu
3. Xinge Guo
4. Zhong Lin Wang
5. Jianjun Luo
6. Qiongfeng Shi
7. Ya Yang
8. Tianyiyi He

Citations in the corpus

• Triboelectric nanogenerators as flexible power sources (2017, methodology): “Reproduced with permission.(37) Copyright 2016 Nature Publishing Group Triboelectric nanogenerators Y Wang et al.”