Thermally configuring thermoelectric textile for sustainable power and personal thermoregulation

Public summary

* A general thermal reconfiguration strategy is proposed for high-performance wearable thermoelectric textiles.

* The thermoelectric textile delivers the power up to 322 μW cm−2 at 289 K.

* The self-powered gesture glove achieves 96.3% air-typing accuracy and precise robotic hand control.

* The thermoregulation system extend the human thermal comfort zone to 261–318 K.

Abstract

Wearable thermoelectric devices show promise as sustainable power sources and personal thermoregulators for on-body applications. However, current devices are challenging to sustainably power wearable electronic systems under normal ambient conditions (∼10 μW cm−2 at ∼289 K) or to stably comfort the human body in fervid outdoor conditions (>313 K). They have a low room temperature thermoelectric figure of merit (zT ∼ 1) and unreachable overall thermal resistance matching with their surroundings. Here, we report a general method for directly designing and fabricating a thermally reconfigured thermoelectric textile to address these challenges. The thermoelectric textile, using optimized pillars embedded in high-thermal-resistance fabric, outputs a maximum power of ∼235–322 μW cm−2 in semi-quiescent air (289 K) and a cooling effect of ∼15–23 K under a fervid ambiance of 318 K. The thermal reconfiguration enables overall thermal resistance matching in both pillar and device levels. We showcased a thermoelectric-powered hand gesture recognition glove system that enables users to communicate by typing in air with 96.3% accuracy and to remotely control a robotic hand with precise spatial movements. We also demonstrated its potential in thermoregulation garments and helmets to extend the human thermal comfort zone to 261–318 K. We propose a general strategy that can increase device performance to demonstrate broad interdisciplinary application prospects.