Nontoxic, flexible energy converters could power wearable devices

Wearable electronics have increasingly become a part of everyday life, so researchers wondered if these could be powered by harvesting electricity from waste heat. Further inspiration came from a desire to ultimately fabricate energy converting devices from the same materials as the active devices themselves. The researchers report the design and fabrication of single-wall carbon nanotube thermoelectric devices on flexible polyimide substrates as a basis for wearable energy converters.