Multifunctional Flexible Thermoelectric Fabric for Smart Wearables

ABSTRACT Wearable thermoelectrics can convert waste heat from the human body and its microenvironment into electrical energy, potentially driving fields such as intelligent sensing, health monitoring, and dynamic protection. However, they are often limited by trade‐offs between performance, comfort, and functionality, which restrict their practical application in smart wearable devices. Here, we report a multifunctional thermoelectric fabric that integrates heat, electricity, and magnetism, fabricated using advanced textile design. The fabric's normal thickness facilitates the construction of a stable temperature difference, enabling temperature sensing with an accuracy of 0.1 K. Through fabric structural design, the thermoelectric device also achieves dual‐parameter sensing with record‐breaking stability (> 10,000 temperature cycles; > 20,000 compression‐release cycles), ultrafast rebound speed (14 ms), and excellent breathability (321 mm/s). More importantly, the thermoelectric substrate also exhibits strong electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance (50.82 dB shielding effectiveness), blocking interference and radiation in both directions, while its clothing‐compatible flexibility ensures wearing comfort. By integrating thermoelectric power generation, multiphysics sensing, and EMI protection into a single composite fabric, this work overcomes the application limitations of traditional flexible electronics and opens up a new paradigm for the functional expansion of flexible thermoelectric materials.

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Publication Details

Journal
Carbon Energy
Published
2026-06-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/cey2.70255
Primary Topic
Electromagnetic wave absorption materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Multifunctional Flexible Thermoelectric Fabric for Smart Wearables

Y Wang, Bo Li, Xinyang He, Miao Miao et al.
Carbon Energy
Electromagnetic wave absorption materials
article

Multifunctional Flexible Thermoelectric Fabric for Smart Wearables

Y Wang, Bo Li, Xinyang He, Miao Miao, Jia Wu, C Zhang, Wuwei Bao, Yifan Cui, Yan Dong, Man Zhou, Linlin Zhang
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Wearable thermoelectrics can convert waste heat from the human body and its microenvironment into electrical energy, potentially driving fields such as intelligent sensing, health monitoring, and dynamic protection. However, they are often limited by trade‐offs between performance, comfort, and functionality, which restrict their practical application in smart wearable devices. Here, we report a multifunctional thermoelectric fabric that integrates heat, electricity, and magnetism, fabricated using advanced textile design. The fabric's normal thickness facilitates the construction of a stable temperature difference, enabling temperature sensing with an accuracy of 0.1 K. Through fabric structural design, the thermoelectric device also achieves dual‐parameter sensing with record‐breaking stability (> 10,000 temperature cycles; > 20,000 compression‐release cycles), ultrafast rebound speed (14 ms), and excellent breathability (321 mm/s). More importantly, the thermoelectric substrate also exhibits strong electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding performance (50.82 dB shielding effectiveness), blocking interference and radiation in both directions, while its clothing‐compatible flexibility ensures wearing comfort. By integrating thermoelectric power generation, multiphysics sensing, and EMI protection into a single composite fabric, this work overcomes the application limitations of traditional flexible electronics and opens up a new paradigm for the functional expansion of flexible thermoelectric materials.

Carbon Energy
Jiangnan University (CN), Tiangong University (CN), Nantong University (CN), Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (CN), Texas A&M University (US)
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 16%
Electromagnetic wave absorption materials
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