Soon, Your Body Heat May Power Wearable Devices

You could soon power wearable devices using just your body heat, without any external power supply or battery replacement. Researchers have developed a new concept of electrical energy storage- thermally changeable solid- state Super capacitor. This is the first time that it has been discovered that a solid-state polymer electrolyte can produce large thermally induced voltage. The voltage can then be used to initiate an electrochemical reaction in electrodes for charging. The super capacitor works by converting thermal energy into electrical energy and then storing it in the device. For example, human body heat, or any heat dissipating objects that create temperature differences from their surroundings can be used to charge the capacitor. The super capacitor is also flexible in that it can be used as a power supply for wearable electronics and can be integrated into wireless data transmission systems to operate internet of things (IoT) sensors. IoT is a concept of connecting various devices and sensors for data communication and exchange. Researcher employed a physical phenomenon known as the Soret effect – using a solid state polymer electrolyte, in which a temperature gradient along the super capacitor moves the ions from the hot side to the cold side  generating high thermally induced voltage.