Flexible gel can turn body heat into power for next-generation wearables

A soft material developed by researchers at QUT can convert body heat into electricity, opening the door to self-powered wearable devices and more sustainable energy technologies. Published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, the research found that the flexible hydrogel captured wasted heat and turned it into usable electrical power with record efficiency. The paper is titled “Ionic Coordination and Hierarchical Architecture Enable Record n-Type Thermoelectric Efficiency in Soft Hydrogels.”