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  • Review Article
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Flexible self-charging power sources

Nature Reviews Materials volume 7, pages 870–886 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Power supply is one of the bottlenecks to realizing untethered wearable electronics, soft robotics and the internet of things. Flexible self-charging power sources integrate energy harvesters, power management electronics and energy-storage units on the same platform; they harvest energy from the ambient environment and simultaneously store the generated electricity for consumption. Thus, they enable self-powered, sustainable and maintenance-free soft electronics. However, challenges associated with materials engineering, mechanistic understanding and device design emerge when moving from individual devices to integrated systems for practical applications. In this Review, we discuss various flexible self-charging technologies as power sources, including the combination of flexible solar cells, mechanical energy harvesters, thermoelectrics, biofuel cells and hybrid devices with flexible energy-storage components. We consider exemplary applications of power-source integration in soft electronics. Finally, we provide an overview of the emerging challenges, strategies and opportunities for research and development of flexible self-charging power sources.

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Fig. 1: Mechanisms of flexible ambient energy harvesters.
Fig. 2: Charging mechanisms of flexible energy-storage devices.
Fig. 3: Mechanisms of self-charging power sources.
Fig. 4: Power management in self-charging power sources.
Fig. 5: Applications of flexible self-powered sensing systems.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI under grant nos. JP18H05465 and JP18H05469.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Energy, Soochow University, Suzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Ruiyuan Liu

  2. Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS), RIKEN, Saitama, Japan

    Ruiyuan Liu, Kenjiro Fukuda & Takao Someya

  3. Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Zhong Lin Wang

  4. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Zhong Lin Wang

  5. Thin-Film Device Laboratory, RIKEN, Saitama, Japan

    Kenjiro Fukuda & Takao Someya

  6. Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Takao Someya

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  1. Ruiyuan Liu
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R.L. wrote and edited the article. Z.L.W., K.F. and T.S. contributed to the discussion of content and edited the manuscript before submission.

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Liu, R., Wang, Z.L., Fukuda, K. et al. Flexible self-charging power sources. Nat Rev Mater 7, 870–886 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-022-00441-0

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