Energy Harvesting Materials and Structures for Smart Textile Applications: Recent Progress and Path Forward

Abstract

A major challenge with current wearable electronics and e-textiles, including sensors, is power supply. As an alternative to batteries, energy can be harvested from various sources using garments or other textile products as a substrate. Four different energy-harvesting mechanisms relevant to smart textiles are described in this review. Photovoltaic energy harvesting technologies relevant to textile applications include the use of high efficiency flexible inorganic films, printable organic films, dye-sensitized solar cells, and photovoltaic fibers and filaments. In terms of piezoelectric systems, this article covers polymers, composites/nanocomposites, and piezoelectric nanogenerators. The latest developments for textile triboelectric energy harvesting comprise films/coatings, fibers/textiles, and triboelectric nanogenerators. Finally, thermoelectric energy harvesting applied to textiles can rely on inorganic and organic thermoelectric modules. The article ends with perspectives on the current challenges and possible strategies for further progress.

Textile electronics for wearable applications

“…Piezoelectric systems, involving the conversion between the mechanical deformation and potential accumulation of materials, are widely studied in the past decades [243][244][245]. Piezoelectric ceramics and single crystals are brittle and rigid with limited applications in wearable electronics [246]. Their organic alternatives, such as polymers and polymer composites are good candidates for textile energy harvesting systems [3].…”

Smart Textiles: A Review and Bibliometric Mapping

“…In medicine and healthcare, reviews have covered smart textiles in health [30], for monitoring health/physiological parameters [31][32][33][34], for personalized healthcare [13], healthcare and sustainability [35], and smart textiles in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic [36,37]. In the electronics domain, reviews have been published on electrically conductive textiles [38], smart textiles for electricity generation [39], energy harvesting materials and structures for smart textiles [40], smart textile triboelectric nanogenerators [15,41,42], smart electronics-based textiles [43,44], smart textiles in relation to wearable electronics [45][46][47][48]. Other reviews have presented smart textiles for personalized thermoregulation [49], protection [50], visible and IR camouflage [51], and chromic smart textiles [52].…”

New Research Trends for Textiles

“…There is a large interest in developing textile-based solutions for power generation and storage. In terms of power generation, energy can be harvested from the body and external sources such as the sun using protective clothing and PPE as a substrate [249]. The latest developments include a flexible photovoltaic film 15 times thinner than paper [250], soft and flexible magnetoelastic generators harvesting body movements [251], and carbon nanotube fiber thermoelectric generators woven into a cotton fabric [252].…”