DO YOU THAT YOUR BODY HEAT IS GOING TO CHARGE YOUR MOBILE??

In a bid to ensure a stable and reliable power supply to your ever power hungry smartphone, a team of researchers have now come up with the idea of a glass fabric-based thermoelectric (TE) generator. The TE generator will be an extremely light and flexible solution to powering up heart monitors, smartglasses and other wearable tech, producing electricity from the heat emancipated from the human body.

"Mobile phones consume high electrical energy compared to electrical sensors. Right now we are trying to make a sample that provides electricity for medical sensors," Byung Jin Cho, a professor of electrical engineering at KAIST (formerly also known as Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) in South Korea was quoted as saying. "After that, smartphones will be the next application of the TE generator," he added. The flexible TE generator could minimise thermal energy loss while maximising power output. It has a self-sustaining structure, eliminating thick external substrates (usually made of ceramic or alumina) that hold inorganic TE materials and efficiently use the small yet significant temperature difference between skin and air to create power.

The researchers have developed two types of TE generators. The organic-based TE generators make use of polymers that are highly flexible and compatible with human skin. Although ideal for wearable electronics, these have a low power output. Inorganic-based TE generators however, produce a high electrical energy. The downside is they are heavy, rigid and bulky. Cho's technology successfully combines the best of both organic and inorganic tech. "This is quite a revolutionary approach to design a generator. In so doing, we were able to significantly reduce the weight of our generator, which is an essential element for wearable electronics," Cho said. 
BY: HONORE HAGUMA