Self-Powered, Non-Toxic, Recyclable Thermogalvanic Hydrogel Sensor for Temperature Monitoring of Edibles

Abstract

Thermogalvanic hydrogel, an environmentally friendly power source, enable the conversion of low-grade thermal energy to electrical energy and powers microelectronic devices in a variety of scenarios without the need for additional batteries. Its toxicity, mechanical fragility and low output performance are a hindrance to its wide application. Here, we demonstrate thermoelectric gels with safe non-toxic, recyclable, highly transparent and flexible stretchable properties by introducing gelatin as a polymer network and SO3/42− as a redox electric pair. When the temperature difference is 10 K, the gel-based thermogalvanic cell achieves an open-circuit voltage of about 16.2 mV with a maximum short-circuit current of 39 μA. Furthermore, we extended the application of the Gel-SO3/42− gel to monitor the temperature of hot or cold food, enabling self-powered sensing for food temperature detection. This research provides a novel concept for harvesting low-grade thermal energy and achieving safe and harmless self-driven temperature monitoring.