Sustainable Fabric-Assisted Thermally Responsive Voltage-Generating Prototype from Upcycled Electronic and Textile Waste

Résumé fourni par la source

Wearable electronic textiles require flexible, lightweight, and sustainable energy-harvesting platforms. This study presents a proof-of-concept fabric-assisted thermally responsive voltage-generating prototype fabricated from recycled electronic and textile waste. Copper and aluminum current-collector foils recovered from discarded non-functional lithium-ion mobile-phone batteries, together with woven apparel cutting waste composed of 70% cotton, 28% polyester, and 2% elastane, were used as the main device components. The recovered conductive foils were cleaned, dried, and manually integrated into the textile substrate using a weaving and piercing-based approach. Under preliminary human forearm-contact testing, the fabricated prototype generated a maximum RMS open-circuit voltage of 180.75 mV at a body-to-ambient temperature difference of 5.82 K. The prototype also retained 90.73%, 86.88%, 81.33%, and 73.58% of its initial RMS open-circuit voltage after 100 rolling, bending, twisting, and folding cycles, respectively. However, the present study measured open-circuit voltage only, and contributions from contact potential, moisture-assisted galvanic effects, oxide layers, pressure-dependent contact resistance, electrochemical processes, and measurement artefacts cannot be fully excluded. Therefore, the results should be interpreted as preliminary proof-of-concept evidence rather than complete validation of practical thermoelectric power-generation performance. Future work should include controlled Seebeck measurements, direct active-junction temperature monitoring, current and power output, load matching, internal resistance, control samples, repeated trials, and durability testing.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.