Juice up your device as you work up a sweat

摘要

Wearable grids collect energy to charge small electronics. Wish you could charge your smart phone or fitness tracker while you're out for a run? New research into a wearable power grid soon may give you that option. The microgrid device created by nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering combines energy from the wearer's perspiration and movement to fire up attached devices. The device consists of sweat-powered biofuel cells, motion-powered generators and energy-storing super capacitors. Each are light, flexible and washable, and can be screen-printed onto clothing. "We're applying the concept of the microgrid to create wearable systems that are powered sustainably, reliably and independently," said co-first author Lu Yin, a nanoengineering Ph.D. student at Jacobs. "Just like a city microgrid integrates a variety of local, renewable power sources like wind and solar, a wearable microgrid integrates devices that locally harvest energy from different parts of the body, like sweat and movement, while containing energy storage."