Harvesting body heat using polymer aerogels thermoelectric generators to power wearable devices – BODYTEG

What if body heat could power wearable devices, medical monitors and watches with ultralight, cheap and flexible thermoelectric devices? BODYTEG project aims at taking advantage of the very low thermal conductivity of aerogels made of highly conducting polymers to elaborate new thermoelectric generators. On this basis, BODYTEG has accordingly four main objectives: i) producing both p- and n-type conductive polymer aerogels (CPAs) with controlled morphology, ii) taking benefit of the porous network to decrease the thermal conductivity of the CPAs, iii) maintaining good mechanical and electrical properties of the aerogel, iv) correlate the structure of the CPAs with their electrical and thermal properties. Ultimately this 42 months project aims to thermoelectric devices with a figure of merit larger by at least one order of magnitude than the present state of the art. Their performances should allow them to power the wearable sensors used in outdoor activities or in medical diagnostic.