Advanced Sensor and Energy Harvesting Materials

Researchers working at the intersection of materials science and biomedical engineering are designing flexible, skin-conforming devices that can both sense physiological signals and generate their own electricity from body motion, heat, or touch. The core challenge is creating electronics that stretch and bend with human tissue without degrading in performance, often by engineering nanoscale materials into triboelectric or piezoelectric generators that convert mechanical energy into usable current, eliminating the need for batteries. This matters because continuous, unobtrusive health monitoring—tracking heart rate, muscle activity, or biochemical markers in real time—becomes far more practical when a device powers itself from the wearer's own movement. Open questions include how to maintain stable electrical output across the irregular, sweaty surfaces of real skin over long periods, and how to integrate multiple sensing and harvesting functions into a single thin, manufacturable platform without sacrificing sensitivity or durability.

Works

120,105

Total citations

3,285,706

Keywords

WearableNanogeneratorsFlexible ElectronicsStretchable SensorsTriboelectric TechnologyEnergy Harvesting