Review on Self-Sustainable Power Generation Technologies for Future Typical Wearable Applications

Abstract

Wearable technology has broad market prospects in the military, fire protection, medical and health, sports and other fields under its ability to effectively solve practical application needs. Self-powered energy systems with miniaturized, light-weight, highly flexible, stretchable, bendable, and wearable properties have received extensive attention in the industry as they can meet the needs of new-generation wearable electronic devices. Firstly, the article summarizes the recent progress and existing problems of flexible solar cells, flexible triboelectric nanogenerators, flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators, flexible thermoelectric generators, and energy harvesting devices for sweat power generation. Secondly, the development and challenges of flexible lithium-ion batteries and flexible super capacitors for energy storage devices are summarized. The research progress of energy management strategies is also discussed. Then, the main applications of self-powered systems in wearable electronic devices are introduced, including Individual Soldier Equipment, Protective Clothing Devices and Smart Wearable Electronic Devices. Finally, the future development direction of self-powered energy systems for wearable electronic devices is discussed.