Technology
Human Body Heat Will Soon Charge Phone
A team led by Professor Jo Byeong-jin of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) had developed a wearable thermo-element that produces electricity when worn on human body using the body temperature. This technology, which can solve the problems associated with wearable device batteries, is expected to be commercialized within the next 2 to 3 years.
Since the existing commercial level thermo-elements was made of ceramic substrates which are hard and unbendable, Professor Jo Byeong-jin has managed to come up with a new kind of thermo-element that is made with glass fiber, and thus can be processed in the form of clothing. It is also lightweight and high in electric power production efficiency.
This wearable thermo-element (10cm in length & width) can produce electricity of approx. 40mW when outside temperature is 20 degree Celsius – this is enough to start a semiconductor chip. When made in the size equivalent to a jacket (50cm – 100cm), it produces approx. 2W, which is enough for powering a mobile phone.
This study was conducted as part of a base type convergence study project supported by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning since 2010 and the results were published in the breaking news section of the March 14 online edition of ‘Energy & Environmental Science,’ the most prestigious journal in energy and environment fields.
