Wearable Motion Smartsensors Self-Powered by Core–Shell Au@Pt Methanol Fuel Cells
Hongting Ma, Quanli Liu, Peihao Cheng, Liuxue Shen, Junlin Ma, Fengjuan Lv, Yunze Zhang, Yu Jiang, Tongrui Sun, Nan Zhu
Abstract
A wearable self-powered sensor is a promising frontier in recent flexible electronic devices. In this work, a wearable fuel cell (FC)-type self-powering motion smartsensor has been fabricated, particularly in choosing methanol vapor as a target fuel for the first time. The core–shell structure of Pt@Au/N-rGO and the porous carbon network act as methanol oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction catalysts, with a highly conductive alkaline hydrogel as a solid-state electrolyte. As a result, a wearable FC for a self-powered sensing system demonstrates excellent sensing performance toward 2–20% (v/v) methanol vapor with a maximum power density of 2.26 μW cm–1 and good mechanical behaviors during the bending or twisting process. Significantly, this wearable FC device could power strain sensors of human motion, and real-time signals can be easily remotely detected via a cellphone. With attractive biocompatibility and self-powering performance, wearable FCs for a self-powering system would provide new opportunities for next-generation flexible smartsensing electronics and initiate a developed self-powering platform in future practical application of wearable smart monitoring.