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Flexible liquid metal coil prepared for electromagnetic energy harvesting and wireless charging

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Abstract

This paper reported a study on a flexible liquid metal coil (LMC) for electromagnetic collection from the transmission line for self-powered sensor and electromagnetic generation for wireless charging of cellular telephone. The room temperature liquid metal of Galinstan was perfused to elastic silicone tube, which is then terminated with gallium-plated copper wire. The as-prepared liquid metal wire can sustain stretching, twisting, and bending with large deformation, and has a good electrical contact stability with the external circuit. The LMC based magnetic energy harvester was then designed and demonstrated to collect the magnetic field energy induced by a wire carrying alternating current. The power of 260 mW was obtained for the wire carrying current of 10 A. The flexible toroidal inductor was fabricated and tested for magnetic energy harvesting. The flexible spiral-shaped LMC was also designed and demonstrated to power cellular telephone through wireless charging. The present study opens the way for further applications of elastic LMC in electromagnetic energy harvesting and charging.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the State Grid Corporation of China Research Program of Key Technologies of Electromagnetic Power Harvesting and Storage for Sensors in Power Distribution (SGHE0000KXJS1700184).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Electric Power Research Institute, Beijing, 100192, China

    Shen Guo, Peng Wang, Jichuan Zhang & Wenpeng Luan

  2. Vehicle Engineering, College of Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100083, China

    Zishuo Xia, Lingxiao Cao & Zhizhu He

  3. Tianjin Microfluidic Technology Co., Ltd., Tianjin, 300457, China

    Zishuo Xia, Lingxiao Cao & Zhizhu He

Authors
  1. Shen Guo
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  2. Peng Wang
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  3. Jichuan Zhang
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  4. Wenpeng Luan
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  5. Zishuo Xia
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  6. Lingxiao Cao
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  7. Zhizhu He
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhizhu He.

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Guo, S., Wang, P., Zhang, J. et al. Flexible liquid metal coil prepared for electromagnetic energy harvesting and wireless charging. Front. Energy 13, 474–482 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-019-0632-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-019-0632-0

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