Nowadays, many of us know our situation by wearing health and fitness trackers like Fitbit, which run on batteries that need to be recharged. Researchers from California Institute of Technology have developed an electronic skin that can be equipped with sensors, and its electricity comes from the sweat of the wearer.
One of the main challenges of this wearable device is the power supply. Gao Wei, a researcher of the project, said. Many people are using batteries, but it won't take long. Some people have tried to use solar cells or collect energy from human movement, but we want to know, can we get enough energy from sweat to power wearable devices? The answer is yes.
Our sweat contains concentrated lactic acid. The by-products of this normal metabolic process will be absorbed by the fuel cells of electronic skin-these fuel cells are made of carbon nanotubes, which contain platinum/cobalt catalyst and an enzyme, which can decompose lactate and be accommodated by the composite network. Here, the discharge of human body is mixed with oxygen in the surrounding air to produce water and pyruvate.
The research team of California Institute of Technology said that these biofuel cells can generate enough continuous and stable electricity to power sensors such as monitoring heart rate, body temperature and blood sugar levels and Bluetooth radio.
Although near-field communication is a common method in many battery-free electronic skin systems, it can only be used for short-distance power transmission and data reading, Gao Xiaoming explained. Bluetooth communication consumes more power, but for practical medical and robot applications, Bluetooth communication is a more attractive method with extended connectivity.
The fuel cell, sensor and wireless communication system are all contained in a soft elastic rubber patch, which is directly attached to the wearer's own skin. Researchers say that this sweat-powered electronic skin can last for many days.
Looking ahead, the team believes that the research and development results can be used as a platform for a variety of battery-free biosensors, and may be used as a man-machine interface to help operate future prostheses.
The paper of this research was published in the journal Science Robot.
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