Lightweight, Wearable Tech Efficiently Converts Body Heat to Electricity

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Daryoosh Vashaee dvashae@ncsu.edu 919.515.9599

马特·希普曼（Matt Shipman） matt_shipman@ncsu.edu 919.515.6386

北卡罗来纳州立大学的研究人员开发了一种新的设计，用于收集人体热量并将其转化为可穿戴电子产品的电力。实验原型轻巧，符合身体的形状，并且比以前的轻质热收集技术可以产生更多的电力。

研究人员还发现了the optimal site on the body for heat harvesting.

“可穿戴的热电发生器（TEGS）通过利用身体和环境空气之间的温度差来产生电力，” NC State电气和计算机工程副教授，作品的对应作者Daryoosh Vashaee说。“以前的方法要么使用散热器（重，僵硬又笨重），要么仅产生一个微小的平方（µW/cm）或更少的功率（µW/cm）²). Our technology generates up to 20 µW/cm²and doesn’t use a heat sink, making it lighter and much more comfortable.”

新的设计始于一层热导电材料，该材料位于皮肤上并散布热量。导电材料上面放上一个聚合物层，可防止热量耗散到外部空气。这迫使人体热量通过中心置的TEG，这是一厘米²。Heat that is not converted into electricity passes through the TEG into an outer layer of thermally conductive material, which rapidly dissipates the heat. The entire system is thin – only 2 millimeters – and flexible.

“In this prototype, the TEG is only one centimeter squared, but we can easily make it larger, depending on a device’s power needs,” says Vashaee, who worked on the project as part of the National Science Foundation’s Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST) at NC State.

研究人员还发现,上臂the optimal location for heat harvesting. While the skin temperature is higher around the wrist, the irregular contour of the wrist limited the surface area of contact between the TEG band and the skin. Meanwhile, wearing the band on the chest limited air flow – limiting heat dissipation – since the chest is normally covered by a shirt.

In addition, the researchers incorporated the TEG into T-shirts. The researchers found that the T-shirt TEGs were still capable of generating 6 µW/cm²– or as much as 16 µW/cm²如果一个人在奔跑。

Vashaee说：“ T恤Tegs肯定可以为可穿戴技术提供动力，但它们的效率不如上臂乐队。”

“辅助的目的是制造可穿戴技术，可用于长期健康监测，例如跟踪心脏健康或监控身体和环境变量的设备predict and prevent asthma attacks，“ 他说。

“为此，我们想制造不依赖电池的设备。而且我们认为这种设计和原型使我们更加接近实现这一目标。”

The paper, “可穿戴的热电发电机，用于人体热收集，”发表在《期刊》上应用能量。该论文的主要作者是北卡罗来纳州立大学的研究生梅利莎·海兰德（Melissa Hyland）和北卡罗来纳州立大学的本科生海伍德·亨特（Haywood Hunter）。在本科生的本科生的支持下，他们在本科生的同时从事该项目的工作。合着者包括NC State的博士后研究员Jie Liu；以及北卡罗来纳州协助教育总监Elena Veety。这项工作由NSF资助，根据EEC-1160483，ECCS-1351533和CMMI-1363485；并根据授予FA9550-12-1-0225的科学研究办公室。

-shipman-

给编辑的注释：研究摘要如下。

“Wearable thermoelectric generators for human body heat harvesting”

Authors: Melissa Hyland, Haywood Hunter, Jie Liu, Elena Veety, and Daryoosh Vashaee, North Carolina State University

Published：8月27日在线，应用能量

doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.08.150

抽象的：A thermoelectric generator (TEG) can be used to harvest electrical energy from human body heat for the purpose of powering wearable electronics. At the NSF Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies (ASSIST), TEGs are one of the enabling technologies being explored to advance the center’s mission of creating wearable, self-powered, health and environmental monitoring systems. As part of this effort, an exploration of the relevant parameters for maximizing the wearable TEG power output from the body heat and maintaining the body comfort is particularly important. For this purpose, the heat from the body must be directed into TEG with minimal loss, the generator must be designed for maintaining a high temperature differential across the thermoelectric material, and the generator must have a small form factor to maintain the body comfort. In order to address these requirements, an optimum TEG design was developed and experiments were conducted both on a temperature-controlled hot plate and on different body locations including the wrist, upper arm, and chest. The TEG was further fabricated into a T-shirt and the power was recorded for different human activities. Comparison of the experiments on various body locations and on the T-shirt yielded the highest to lowest power generated on the upper arm, wrist, chest and T-shirt, respectively. The prospect of powering a wearable electrocardiogram sensor by a TEG on the upper arm is discussed.