All-polymer wearable thermoelectrochemical cells harvesting body heat
Shuai Zhang,
Yuetong Zhou,
Yuqing Liu,
Gordon G. Wallace,
Stephen Beirne,
Jun Chen
Affiliations
Shuai Zhang
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Yuetong Zhou
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Yuqing Liu
State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Film and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, PR China
Gordon G. Wallace
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia; Corresponding author
Stephen Beirne
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
Jun Chen
Intelligent Polymer Research Institute and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia; Corresponding author
Summary: Wearable thermoelectrochemical cells have attracted increasing interest due to their ability to turn human body heat into electricity. Here, we have fabricated a flexible, cost-effective, and 3D porous all-polymer electrode on an electrical conductive polymer substrate via a simple 3D printing method. Owing to the high degree of electrolyte penetration into the 3D porous electrode materials for redox reactions, the all-polymer based porous 3D electrodes deliver an increased power output of more than twice that of the film electrodes under the same mass loading using either n-type or p-type gel electrolytes. To realize the practical application of our thermocell, we fabricated 18 pairs of n-p devices through a series connection of single devices. The strap shaped thermocell arrangement was able to charge up a commercial supercapacitor to 0.27 V using the body heat of the person upon which it was being worn and in turn power a typical commercial lab timer.
