Energy storage and harvesting for smart clothing

The energy storage device of smart clothing, that is, the power supply. However, such energy storage devices need to be flexible, wearable, and miniaturized and functional, so that they can be used to store and supply energy for clothing. According to the different energy storage devices and conversion methods, they are divided into solar cells, lithium-ion batteries, triboelectric generators, thermoelectric generators and supercapacitors. Solar cells and lithium-ion batteries are more well-known, but what are the last three? Triboelectric generators use the principle of triboelectric electricity (that is, the transfer of charge between two objects after friction) to convert a very small amount of mechanical energy into electrical energy, and this kind of energy storage is more suitable for portable electronics, smart clothing and sensor terminals. The thermoelectric material of the thermoelectric generator directly converts the temperature difference heat energy into electrical energy, and converts the heat energy generated by human movement into electrical energy after being processed by the energy conversion unit, so as to supply power to wearable electronic devices. Also known as electrochemical capacitor or double-layer capacitor, it is a new type of energy storage device between traditional capacitor and rechargeable battery, which has both the characteristics of rapid charging and discharging of capacitors and the energy storage characteristics of batteries.