Multifunctional energy harvesting and storage textile technology based on thermionic effect

The development of effective dual-function energy harvesting/storage technologies is a milestone demand for the emerging generation of low-consumption autonomous electronics. This work reports the development of a multifunctional thermionic power textile device merging thermal energy harvesting and electrochemical energy storage for application in self-powered systems. An everyday cost-effective non-conductive natural fabric was transformed into an all-solid-state textile-based thermally-chargeable supercapacitor (T-TCSC) via dyeing with multiwalled carbon nanotubes and subsequent assembly with H3PO4-doped poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) solid-gel polyelectrolyte.