What is it about?
Wearable electronics need a power source, but batteries are rigid, bulky and need recharging. We created a soft, stretchy patch that generates its own electricity from body movement, so it never needs a battery. The device is built from laser-induced graphene and Ecoflex, and it can stretch to nearly five times (468%) its original size - a record for this type of sensor. Worn on the skin like a piece of sports tape, it picks up the tiny signals produced as muscles and joints move, allowing exercise and rehabilitation to be monitored comfortably and continuously.
Featured Image
Photo by on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Ferroelectret nanogenerators are attractive for self-powered wearables, but until now they have been nowhere near stretchy enough to survive on moving skin. Our device combines record stretchability (468%) with strong piezoelectric output in both directions, making it the first of its kind truly suitable for comfortable, skin-mounted use. Demonstrated as a smart kinesiology tape that tracks muscle and joint motion, it points the way to unobtrusive biomechanical feedback for everyone from elite athletes to rehabilitation patients, and opens new possibilities for human-machine interfaces.
Perspectives
Watching our ferroelectret design survive being stretched to nearly five times its original size was a thrilling moment for the team. I hope this work encourages others to rethink what soft, self-powered sensors can do - and that one day athletes and patients will wear devices like our intelligent tape without ever noticing they are there.
Professor Wei Li
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Self-powered highly stretchable ferroelectret nanogenerator towards intelligent sports, Nano Trends, December 2024, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.nwnano.2024.100053.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
