Publication

Wearable electronics have gained dramatic development in recent years, owing to the advancement in flexible/
stretchable electronics, and achieved considerable progress in various applications. Nanogenerators capable of
harvesting energy from human activities is considered as a promising alternative for powering the wearable
electronic devices, considering the sustainability and rich biomechanical energy from human body. Currently,
most of the nanogenerators are aimed at converting limited forms of mechanical energy, mostly pressing or
bending, which hampers adaptive exploitation of bodily energy source. Also, the incapability to respond to
multiple forms of mechanical stimuli deters the nanogenerators from functioning as full-range human activities
sensors. Here, we devise a stretchable integrated nanogenerator-sensory coaxial core-sheath fiber with improved
functionality and sustainability. The combination of materials engineering and structure design enables the fiber
to scavenge versatile mechanical energy, including stretch, bend, twist and press, through a gap size variation
induced electrostatic effect. Besides, the fiber realizes the detection of joint-bending and joint-twisting related
motions, such as walking and elbow rotation, and also succeeds in capturing subtle physiological signals, such as
breath, pulse and speech recognition, which paves the way for full-range personal healthcare monitoring and
documenting in a self-powered, wearable and noninvasive manner.

Researcher / Author: Yin Cheng, Xin Lu, Kwok Hoe Chan, Ranran Wang, Zherui Cao, Jing Sun, Ghim Wei Ho

Nano Energy 41 (2017) 511–518; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2017.10.010