Wearable power sources for wearable electronics are limited by the size of garments.
With that in mind, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have developed flexible wire-shaped microsupercapacitors that can be woven into a jacket, shirt or dress.
By their design or by connecting the capacitors in series or parallel, the devices can be tailored to match the charge storage and delivery needs of electronics donned.
While there’s been progress in development of those electronics–body cameras, smart glasses, sensors that monitor health, activity trackers and more–one challenge remaining is providing less obtrusive and cumbersome power sources.
“The area of clothing is fixed, so to generate the power density needed in a small area, we grew radially-aligned titanium oxide nanotubes on a titanium wire used as the main electrode,” said Liming Dai, the Kent Hale Smith Professor of Macromolecular Science and Engineering. “By increasing the surface area of the electrode, you increase the capacitance.”
Dai and Tao Chen, a postdoctoral fellow in molecular science and engineering at Case Western Reserve, published their research on the microsupercapacitor in the journal Energy Storage Materials this week. The study builds on earlier carbon-based supercapacitors.
A capacitor is cousin to the battery, but offers the advantage of charging and releasing energy much faster.
How it works
In this new supercapacitor, the modified titanium wire is coated with a solid electrolyte made of polyvinyl alcohol and phosphoric acid. The wire is then wrapped with either yarn or a sheet made of aligned carbon nanotubes, which serves as the second electrode. The titanium oxide nanotubes, which are semiconducting, separate the two active portions of the electrodes, preventing a short circuit.
In testing, capacitance–the capability to store charge–increased from 0.57 to 0.9 to 1.04 milliFarads per micrometer as the strands of carbon nanotube yarn were increased from 1 to 2 to 3.
When wrapped with a sheet of carbon nanotubes, which increases the effective area of electrode, the microsupercapactitor stored 1.84 milliFarads per micrometer. Energy density was 0.16 x 10-3 milliwatt-hours per cubic centimeter and power density .01 milliwatt per cubic centimeter.
Whether wrapped with yarn or a sheet, the microsupercapacitor retained at least 80 percent of its capacitance after 1,000 charge-discharge cycles. To match various specific power needs of wearable devices, the wire-shaped capacitors can be connected in series or parallel to raise voltage or current, the researchers say.
When bent up to 180 degrees hundreds of times, the capacitors showed no loss of performance. Those wrapped in sheets showed more mechanical strength.
“They’re very flexible, so they can be integrated into fabric or textile materials,” Dai said. “They can be a wearable, flexible power source for wearable electronics and also for self-powered biosensors or other biomedical devices, particularly for applications inside the body.”
Read more: CWRU researchers tailor power source for wearable electronics
The Latest on: Wearable electronics
[google_news title=”” keyword=”wearable electronics” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Wearable electronics
- Harnessing Sunlight Like Never Before: Hemispherical Solar Cells Unleash Unmatched Absorptionon May 9, 2024 at 4:17 am
New research suggests redesigning organic solar cells with a hemispherical shell structure to provide broader angular coverage, which is particularly beneficial for devices that need adaptable light ...
- Polyimide Film and Tape: Powering Innovation in Implantable and Wearable Medical Devices Market to Reach USD 5.2 Billion by 2034on May 9, 2024 at 1:50 am
The polyimide film and tape market is poised to cross USD 2.3 billion in 2024 and is likely to attain a valuation of USD 5.2 billion by 2034. The polyimide film and tape market size is projected to ...
- Innovative electrospinning method creates advanced ceramic nanofibers and springson May 8, 2024 at 5:00 pm
(Nanowerk Spotlight) Ceramics boast impressive strength and durability, but their inherent rigidity and brittleness have long hindered applications demanding flexibility, such as filters, sensors, ...
- COVID-19 pandemic changed attitudes toward wearableson May 8, 2024 at 1:58 pm
Uncovering an overwhelming interest Throughout the interviews, Cruz consistently found that the COVID-19 pandemic strongly influenced perceptions of wearable electronics. Participants who felt ...
- COVID-19 pandemic changed attitudes toward wearable health devices, study findson May 8, 2024 at 7:50 am
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased interest in wearable health-monitoring devices among low-income Hispanic and Latine adults living in the U.S., a new Northwestern University study has ...
- Matter 1.3 Update Cooks Up New Integrations, But Adoption Is Slow Goingon May 8, 2024 at 6:09 am
New device types include EV chargers, microwaves, and ovens. Plus Matter now supports scenes so you can control multiple devices with a single command.
- Wearable Sensors for Vascular Age and CVD Assessmenton May 6, 2024 at 5:59 pm
Researchers introduced a novel approach to cardiovascular health monitoring by integrating a stroke-volume allocation (SVA) model with wearable sensors. Through comprehensive experiments and clinical ...
- AI approach enhances efficiency of material multiscale simulation for wearable electronicson May 6, 2024 at 11:29 am
The integration of microscale and macroscale simulations has long been a computational challenge in material science. Addressing this, researchers have developed AGAT, a machine learning model that ...
- Flexible Electronics Market To Reach USD 59.9 Billion By 2032, Says DataHorizzon Researchon May 3, 2024 at 12:00 am
Demand for wearable devices boosts the flexible electronics industry's growth. The fusion of wearable technology with flexible electronics stands as a significant technological advancement in recent ...
- A step forward for self-health monitoring—wireless charging through a magnetic connectionon April 30, 2024 at 9:43 am
Zheng Yan and a team of researchers at the University of Missouri have made a significant breakthrough in their ongoing development of an on-skin wearable bioelectronic device. Yan's lab, which ...
via Bing News