Research Projects

The development of portable and wearable Medicare devices is a significant challenge in the 21st century, as approximately 56 million people die annually due to various diseases and accidents. Heart diseases cause around 15 million deaths globally, with India alone causing 1.7 million deaths per year. The Covid-19 pandemic has further weakened respiratory systems, making people more vulnerable. To address this issue, the development of portable and wearable Medicare devices requires constant health monitoring. However, traditional batteries have limitations such as limited cycle life, rigid design, and poor durability. The recent research prodigy triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) can harvest electrical energy from mechanical movements and charge energy storage devices. Combining TENG with supercapacitors (SC) in a single unit can provide a durable solution for powering smart and wearable sensing and medical devices. TENG integrated power units can be used in the health sector as pressure sensor devices to monitor pulse and respiration rate. SCs are better choices for energy storage and powering flexible electronics due to their higher capacitance and energy density. Self-powered systems with TENG integrated SCs are relatively unexplored for medical applications, especially in India. A proposal is proposed to fabricate flexible and wearable TENG with a simple, low-cost route to harvest energy from various bodily movements. The team plans to develop suitable electrode materials for flexible supercapacitors that can be integrated with TENG.

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