Graphene-based wearable supercapacitor powers prosthetic hand

Made from a graphene–graphite polyurethane (GPU) composite, the supercapacitor harvests energy from integrated flexible photovoltaic cells. According to the research, published in Advanced Science, the ‘e-skin’ device can deliver up to 2.5 volts, making it significantly more powerful than similar wearable energy storage devices. The technology builds on previous work carried out by the university’s Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) research group, which saw medical sensors made using a porous foam of graphene and silver.

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/graphene-wearable-devices/

“This is the latest development in a string of successes we’ve had in creating flexible, graphene-based devices which are capable of powering themselves from sunlight,” said research lead Ravinder Dahiya, Professor of Electronics and Nanoengineering at Glasgow. “Our previous generation of flexible e-skin needed around 20 nanowatts per square centimetre for its operation, which is so low that we were getting surplus energy even with the lowest-quality photovoltaic cells on the market.”