Wearable Microgrid Shirt

What is a wearable microgrid?

UC San Diego nanoengineers call it a ''wearable microgrid''-- it combines energy from the wearer's sweat and movement to provide sustainable power for wearable devices. Nanoengineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a "wearable microgrid" that harvests and stores energy from the human body to power small electronics.

What is a wearable e-textile microgrid system?

Inspired by this notion, we herein propose and demonstrate the concept of a wearable e-textile microgrid system: a multi-module, textile-base system with applications powered by complementary and synergistic energy harvesters and commensurate energy storage modules.

What is a wearable microgrid (BFC)?

In the wearable microgrid system, BFCs offer the feature of harvesting biochemical energy continuously from metabolites present in biofluids via electroenzymatic reactions. Due to the high lactate concentrations in human sweat, a variety of sweat-based BFCs have been developed as wearable energy harvesters 47, 48, 49, 50, 51.

What is wearable bioenergy microgrid?

In summary, we have demonstrated the concept of wearable bioenergy microgrid via a textile-based multi-module system for sequentially harvesting biomechanical and biochemical energy via the TEG and BFC modules.

Can a wearable microgrid power a wristwatch?

In tests conducted so far, a volunteer wore the shirt while either running or using an exercise bike for 10 minutes, after which they rested for 20 minutes. For the entirety of each 30-minute session, the wearable microgrid was able to power either an LCD wristwatch or a small electrochromic display.

How does e-textile microgrid work?

Unlike earlier hybrid wearable systems, the presented e-textile microgrid relies solely on human activity to work synergistically, harvesting biochemical and biomechanical energy using sweat-based biofuel cells and triboelectric generators, and regulating the harvested energy via supercapacitors for high-power output.