Wearable Energy Generating and Storing Textile Based on Carbon Nanotube Yarns

Abstract

The challenges of textiles that can generate and store energy simultaneously for wearable devices are to fabricate yarns that generate electrical energy when stretched, yarns that store this electrical energy, and textile geometries that facilitate these functions. To address these challenges, this research incorporates highly stretchable electrochemical yarn harvesters, where available mechanical strains are large and electrochemical energy storing yarns are achieved by weaving. The solid‐state yarn harvester provides a peak power of 5.3 W kg−1 for carbon nanotubes. The solid‐state yarn supercapacitor provides stable performance when dynamically deformed by bending and stretching, for example. A textile configuration that consists of harvesters, supercapacitors, and a Schottky diode is produced and stores as much electrical energy as is needed by a serial or parallel connection of the harvesters or supercapacitors. This textile can be applied as a power source for health care devices or other wearable devices and be self‐powered sensors for detecting human motion.

Stretchable Supercapacitors: From Materials and Structures to Devices

“…The fibrous supercapacitor can share a fibrous electrode with other fibrous energy conversion devices or other fibrous energy storage devices and can be integrated into one device with self-powering ability, high energy density, and high power density simultaneously. [123,[193][194][195] Moreover, fibrous supercapacitors themselves can also be connected in series or in parallel to improve the output voltage or current to meet energy requirements. [173,196] Researchers have successfully combined energy harvesters with stretchable supercapacitors to form self-powered systems.…”

“…This self-powered system can be used as a power source for healthcare devices, wearable devices, and sensors (Figure 11d). [123] The integration of sensors and stretchable supercapacitors has also attracted research interest. Supercapacitors are employed to directly supply power to sensors that require only a small amount of energy.…”

“…[ 107,114,117 ] The other involves manufacturing fibrous supercapacitors and then weaving them into the fabric. [ 118,123 ] The stretch rate of the textile structure ranges from 20% to 120% (Table 2). The textile structure of the supercapacitors can also be woven into other types of devices to form a wearable system, which is one of the biggest advantages of textile structures.…”

“…Moreover, through the special design of continuous winding, several stretchable fibrous supercapacitors can be connected in series to increase the output voltage, which can power light bulbs and a watch. Kim and co‐workers [ 123 ] first developed helical structure supercapacitors and helical structure energy harvesters and then wove them together to obtain a self‐powered energy garment.…”

“…This self‐powered system can be used as a power source for healthcare devices, wearable devices, and sensors (Figure 11d). [ 123 ]…”