New coated fabrics can use body heat to generate electricity

US researchers have recently developed a fabric that uses body heat to generate electricity and power small electronic devices, and is expected to solve the problem of hard-to-wear energy supply.

Researchers published a paper on the 22nd online edition of the international journal Advanced Materials Technology, which uses the temperature difference between higher body temperature and lower ambient temperature to generate electricity. According to the thermoelectric effect, a material having high conductivity and low thermal conductivity allows charge to flow from a high temperature region to a low temperature region.

The researchers "sprayed" a flexible, lightweight polymer film called "PEDOT-Cl" onto cotton fabric to form a "thermoelectric stack." The bracelet is made of this fabric and can generate a thermal voltage of more than 20 millivolts per day.

The author of the paper, Teresa Andrew, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said that the coated fabric has good thermoelectric properties, can generate high enough thermal voltage to power small equipment, and has high efficiency and cost. Low advantage.

When the researchers tested the durability of the coated fabric, it was found that after washing with hot water, the coating did not break, delaminate or fall off, and the electrical conductivity of the fabric was hardly affected.