Scientists develop composite energy clothing that can harvest light energy and mechanical energy at the same time

With the booming development of smart wearable devices, people’s demand for lightweight, cheap, portable, flexible and sustainable power supplies has become increasingly prominent. People have always dreamed of realizing an energy technology that can be woven into clothing, which can collect various environmental energies such as light, wind, and human movement, and convert them into electrical energy to provide continuous power for wearable electronic devices. With the joint efforts of Professor Wang Zhonglin’s research group from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the Institute of Nanoenergy and Systems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Associate Professor Fan Xing’s research group from Chongqing University, inspired by flying shuttle weaving technology, they broke through the technology of electrode micro-nano interface stress control. Overcoming difficulties, we successfully woven a new polymer fiber-based solar cell and a fiber triboelectric nanogenerator to form a single-layer, lightweight, breathable, and cheap new all-solid-state smart wearable fabric. The fabric can not only collect solar energy, but also convert the mechanical friction of the fibers inside the fabric caused by human body movement into electrical energy, thereby driving portable electronic devices to work continuously.

Through shuttle weaving technology, solar fabric modules and nanogenerator modules can be connected in various complex series and parallel configurations according to different electrical output requirements in a single layer of 320 micron-thick fabric, and integrated into human clothing according to needs of different parts. It is worth mentioning that through the combination of solar modules and nanogenerator modules, the power fabric can achieve relatively stable power output in the impedance range of hundreds of ohms to megaohms, thus greatly improving the fabric’s ability to serve as a power source. Adaptability. In this work, the influence of different fabric structures such as plain weave, twill weave, satin weave, and mixed weave on the electrical output of fabric devices was also systematically studied. And by co-spinning with colored silk threads, practical energy fabrics of different colors and different appearance patterns are realized. Based on energy fabrics, a series of self-powering clothes, curtains, tents and other fabric items commonly used in daily life can realize self-powering functions. Experimental results show that a single-layer fabric with a length of 5 cm and a width of 4 cm, driven by outdoor sunlight and mechanical movement, can not only provide continuous power to electronic watches, mobile phones and other equipment, but also drive electrochemical reactions such as electrolysis of water. . In addition, this new shuttle weaving technology is very conducive to mass production, further reducing the cost of fabrics. Because this energy fabric has excellent properties such as being light, soft, wearable, foldable, and breathable, it will have broad application and development prospects in wearable electronics, human health, energy, military and other fields. Relevant work was published in the new issue of “Nature Energy” (Nature Energy1, 16138, 2016, DOI10.1038/NENERGY.2016.138). Dr. Chen Jun from the Georgia Institute of Technology (now a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University) and Huang Yi from Chongqing University are the co-first authors of the paper.