A Battery-Like Self-Charge Universal Module for Motional Energy Harvest

Wearable and portable electronics have brought great convenience. These battery-powered commercial devices have a limited lifetime and require recharging, which makes more extensive applications challenging. Here, a battery-like self-charge universal module (SUM) is developed, which is able to efficiently convert mechanical energy into electrical energy and store it in one device. An integrated SUM consists of a power management unit and an energy harvesting unit. Compared to other mechanical energy harvesting devices, SUM is more ingenious, efficient and can be universally used as a battery. Under low frequency (5 Hz), a SUM can deliver an excellent normalized output power of 2 mW g(-1). After carrying several SUMs and jogging for 10 min, a commercial global positioning system module is powered and works continuously for 0.5 h. SUMs can be easily assembled into different packages for powering various commercial electronics, demonstrating the great application prospects of SUM as a sustainable battery-like device for wearable and portable electronics.