Researchers at QUT have discovered a new way to create flexible semiconductors that could power wearable devices using the heat from our bodies.
Their work focuses on a special technique called “vacancy engineering”—the careful control of tiny empty spaces between atoms in a crystal—to boost the material’s performance.
The study was published in Nature Communications.
The team, led by first author Nanhai Li and including Dr. Xiao-Lei Shi, Siqi Liu, Tian-Yi Cao, Min Zhang, Wan-Yu Lyu, Wei-Di Liu, Dongchen Qi, and Professor Zhi-Gang Chen, worked within the ARC Research Hub for Zero-emission Power Generation for Carbon Neutrality at QUT.
They used computational design to create a flexible alloy made of silver, copper, tellurium, selenium, and sulfur, called AgCu(Te, Se, S).
They developed this material using a simple and affordable melting process.
By precisely adjusting the tiny gaps—or vacancies—between atoms, the researchers improved the material’s ability to turn heat into electricity.
At the same time, they made it flexible and stretchable, which is important for wearable technologies. To show how it could be used in real life, they created small flexible devices that can easily attach to a person’s arm.
Mr. Li explained that this research tackled a major challenge: how to improve the efficiency of flexible materials that convert heat into electricity. Traditional thermoelectric materials are often either too brittle to bend or too weak to perform well.
With their new approach, the QUT team achieved both flexibility and high performance in the same material.
Thermoelectric materials have gained a lot of attention because they can generate electricity from heat without any moving parts, pollution, or noise.
The human body is a natural heat source, and during exercise, the temperature difference between the body and the surrounding air becomes even greater, offering an ideal opportunity to harvest that energy.
Professor Chen said the growing demand for flexible electronics, such as smartwatches and health monitors, is pushing the need for better flexible thermoelectric materials. He noted that while organic materials are usually more flexible, they perform poorly, and inorganic materials, though efficient, are often too brittle. The new material developed at QUT offers the best of both worlds.
In a separate study published in Science, Professor Chen’s team also created an ultra-thin, flexible film that can power wearable devices with body heat, without needing traditional batteries.
He emphasized that advancing flexible thermoelectric technology requires exploring a wide range of possibilities, and the new research provides a rare example of an inorganic material that remains flexible without sacrificing performance.
This discovery opens exciting new possibilities for the future of wearable technology, offering a clean, efficient way to power devices simply by using the natural heat our bodies produce.
