Waste Cotton-Derived Fiber-Based Thermoelectric Aerogel for Wearable and Self-Powered Temperature-Compression Strain Dual-Parameter Sensing

Xinyang He; Mingyuan Liu; Jiaxin Cai; Zhen Li; Zhilin Teng; Yunna Hao; Yifan Cui; Jianyong Yu; Liming Wang; Xiaohong Qin

doi:10.1016/j.eng.2024.01.015

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Engineering ›› 2024, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (8) : 235-243. DOI: 10.1016/j.eng.2024.01.015

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Article

Waste Cotton-Derived Fiber-Based Thermoelectric Aerogel for Wearable and Self-Powered Temperature-Compression Strain Dual-Parameter Sensing

Xinyang He^a^,^# ,
Mingyuan Liu^a^,^# ,
Jiaxin Cai^a ,
Zhen Li^a ,
Zhilin Teng^a ,
Yunna Hao^a ,
Yifan Cui^b ,
Jianyong Yu^c ,
Liming Wang^a^,^* ,
Xiaohong Qin^a^,^*

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Abstract

The rapid development of the global economy and population growth are accompanied by the production of numerous waste textiles. This leads to a waste of limited resources and serious environmental pollution problems caused by improper disposal. The rational recycling of wasted textiles and their transformation into high-value-added emerging products, such as smart wearable devices, is fascinating. Here, we propose a novel roadmap for turning waste cotton fabrics into three-dimensional elastic fiber-based thermoelectric aerogels by a one-step lyophilization process with decoupled self-powered temperature-compression strain dual-parameter sensing properties. The thermoelectric aerogel exhibits a fast compression response time of $0.2 s$ , a relatively high Seebeck coefficient of $43 μ V ⋅ K - 1$ , and an ultralow thermal conductivity of less than $0.04 W ⋅ m - 1 ⋅ K - 1$ . The cross-linking of trimethoxy(methyl)silane (MTMS) and cellulose endowed the aerogel with excellent elasticity, allowing it to be used as a compressive strain sensor for guessing games and facial expression recognition. In addition, based on the thermoelectric effect, the aerogel can perform temperature detection and differentiation in self-powered mode with the output thermal voltage as the stimulus signal. Furthermore, the wearable system, prepared by connecting the aerogel-prepared array device with a wireless transmission module, allows for temperature alerts in a mobile phone application without signal interference due to the compressive strains generated during gripping. Hence, our strategy is significant for reducing global environmental pollution and provides a revelatory path for transforming waste textiles into high-value-added smart wearable devices.

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Keywords

Waste textiles / High value-added recycling / Thermoelectrics / Elasticity / Decoupled sensing

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Xinyang He, Mingyuan Liu, Jiaxin Cai, Zhen Li, Zhilin Teng, Yunna Hao, Yifan Cui, Jianyong Yu, Liming Wang, Xiaohong Qin. Waste Cotton-Derived Fiber-Based Thermoelectric Aerogel for Wearable and Self-Powered Temperature-Compression Strain Dual-Parameter Sensing. Engineering, 2024, 39(8): 235‒243 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2024.01.015

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