The Electro-Mechanical Energy Harvesting Configurations in Different Modes from Machine to Self-Powered Wearable Electronics

Abstract

Recently, self-powered wearable electronics have gained interest among scientists globally because of the numerous configurations available for portable and small power devices. The current research explores the fabrication of flexible devices under the principle of piezoelectric transducers. The materials used in fabrication were versatile dielectric and electro-active silicone rubber (SR) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT). The tensile moduli of the MWCNT 5 parts per hundred rubber (phr) and unfilled samples are 2.034 and 0.711 MPa, respectively. Adding MWCNT up to 5 phr improved the voltage output of piezo-electric material under mechanical deformation. Energy-harvesting experiments showed that compressive specimens produced 3250% higher voltage output than tensile specimens for 5 phr samples during 30% of strain by machine. MWCNT-reinforced silicone rubber's voltage output was measured during different human motions, including finger and wrist bending of 0−90 deg and finger and leg pressing. A higher voltage of ∼8 mV is harvested from leg pressing than from other human movements and ∼4 mV from finger pressing. Further research is needed to develop custom-built, flexible energy harvesters. Overall, these devices are suitable for powering portable devices because of their self-powering ability and can replace batteries in devices like calculators or smartwatches.