Thermocouple Fabrics for Energy Harvesting in Smart Textiles –Applications and Prototype

Aim of this paper is to outline some recent developments in the field of textile integrated thermoelectric generators (TEGs), with focus on the final applications and to present two small prototypes developed at INCDTP – Bucharest. TEGs represent an autonomous energy harvesting solution to be integrated within a textile material with the purpose of supplying small devices of smart textiles (sensors, actuators, antennas etc.). Pairs of metallic threads were sewn onto a textile substrate in order to construct a thermopile: Silver and Copper/Silver threads for the first prototype and Silver and Stainless steel threads for the second prototype. The two parts of the textile substrate were subjected to a temperature gradient (up to 80K) and the generation of a voltage was evidenced in the range of $50- 160 \mu \mathrm{V}$. This is a promising result for continuation of experiments with different types of threads and different geometrical structures.