Endless Energy: How To Use Your Body Heat To Power Electronics
Dr. Choongho Yu and his graduate student group has developed a new concept of electrical energy storage: Thermally Chargeable Solid-state Supercapacitor.
Dr. Choongho Yu, Gulf Oil/Thomas A. Dietz Career Development Professor II in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, and his graduate student group has developed a new concept of electrical energy storage: Thermally Chargeable Solid-state Supercapacitor.
This innovative supercapacitor allows charging to be completed using thermal energy in addition to the traditional electrical charging method for capacitors.
“This is the first time that it has been discovered that a solid-state polymer electrolyte can produce large thermally induced voltage,” Yu said. “The voltage can then be used to initiate an electrochemical reaction in electrodes for charging.”
The Thermally Chargeable Solid-state Supercapacitor works by converting thermal energy into electrical energy and then storing it in the device at the same time. For example, human body heat, or any heat dissipating objects that create temperature differences from their surroundings can be used to charge the capacitor without external electrical power sources.