Abstract
This paper presents the realization of a flexible thermoelectric (TE) generator as a textile fabric that converts human body heat into electrical energy for portable, low-power microelectronic products. In this study, an organic non-toxic conductive coating was used to dip rayon wipes into conductive TE fabrics so that the textile took advantage of the TE currents which were parallel to the temperature gradient. To this end, a dyed conductive cloth was first sewn into a TE unit. The TE unit was then sewn into an array to create a temperature difference between the human body and the environment for TE power harvesting. The prototype of the TE fabric consisted of 48 TE units connected by conductive wire over an area of 275 × 205 mm2, and the TE units were sewn on a T-shirt at the chest area. After fabrication and property tests, a Seebeck coefficient of approximately 20 μV/K was measured from the TE unit, and 0.979 mV voltage was obtained from the T-shirt with TE textile fabric. Since the voltage was generated at a low temperature gradient environment, the proposed energy solution in actual fabric applications is suitable for future portable microelectronic power devices.
Highlights
The demand for portable and flexible electronic devices is increasing due to the growth in Internet of Things (IoT) products
Since the voltage was generated at a low temperature gradient environment, the proposed energy solution in actual fabric applications is suitable for future portable microelectronic power devices
Flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) films that harvest energy from human body heat [1] have attracted considerable attention because this new technology offers a possible alternative to the current battery technology used in portable and low-power IoT devices, such as healthcare sensors and personal mobile devices [2,3]
Summary
The demand for portable and flexible electronic devices is increasing due to the growth in Internet of Things (IoT) products. Flexible thermoelectric generator (TEG) films that harvest energy from human body heat [1] have attracted considerable attention because this new technology offers a possible alternative to the current battery technology used in portable and low-power IoT devices, such as healthcare sensors and personal mobile devices [2,3]. Developed nanowire TE modules for future flexible TEGs. flexible TEGs can be manufactured through various processes [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22], each of the aforementioned conventional technologies has limitations such as cost, toxicity, complicated processes, yield issues on products, and difficulty in integrating with actual clothing.
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