Harvesting human kinematical energy based on liquid metal magnetohydrodynamics

A flexible human energy harvesting generator - Liquid Metal Magnetohydrodynamics Generator (LMMG) is proposed and fabricated. Conceptual experiments were performed to investigate this electricity harvesting principle. Theoretical analysis predicts that the present method is promising at converting otherwise wasted human kinematical energy via a directional selective generation paradigm. In vitro experiment demonstrates output of 1.4 V/3.61 mu W by 5.68 g Ga62In25Sn13 liquid metal with a rather high efficiency of more than 45%. The in vivo experiment actuated by a wrist swing during brisk walking with the plastic valve to rectify the flow, verified the potentiality of unidirectional actuation. This concept based on the flexible movement of LMMG is robust to supply electricity which would be important for future wearable micro/nano devices as a voltage constrained charge provider. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.