Electrostatic Energy Harvesting from Human Interactions with Smart Paper Electronics.

Smart devices are quickly becoming ubiquitous with the rise of portable biosensors and the internet of things. There exists particular interest in enhancing common objects to have smart capabilities and finding inexpensive solutions for diagnostic tools. One such example is transforming paper items into interactive devices and point-of-care analytic products. Due to the lightweight, flexible, and cost-efficient qualities of paper, unobtrusively powering these devices remains an outstanding problem. In this paper, we demonstrate an electrostatic human-touch powered energy harvesting system, integrated with flexible painted conductive electrodes on paper. This system harvests 8.5 nJ of energy and reaches a voltage of 1.3 V on a 10 nF energy storage capacitor. This technology not only provides a method of powering paper-based products with routine human gestures but can also detect human touch for input communication to sensors.