Wearable devices powered by human sweat could replace conventional batteries, scientists have claimed. University of Glasgow engineers have put together a flexible supercapacitor which stores energy.
But it replaces the electrolytes founds in batteries with human sweat, they added. It can be fully charged with as little as 20 microlitres of fluid and is robust enough to survive 4,000 cycles of the types of flexes and bends it might encounter in use.
The device works by coating polyester cellulose cloth in a thin layer of a polymer known as poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate – or PEDOT:PSS – which acts as the supercapacitor's electrode.