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Self-healing and eco-friendly devices that generate electricity from body heat could power wearable gadgets, such as a heart monitor for runners.

Jianliang Xiao at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and his colleagues created devices based on thermoelectric generators, which convert heat into electricity. The team embedded a number of these generators in a thin film made from a flexible polymer called polyimine and wired them together with a liquid gallium-indium alloy to create stretchable bands that can be worn on arms, legs and fingers. The device costs less than $10 to produce.

The team tested a wrist-worn version of the device by asking someone to wear it while both sitting and walking. The increased body heat during walking generated enough power 鈥� 12.5 microwatts 鈥� to power small sensors such as a heart monitor or motion tracker, says the team.

The liquid metal and polyimine make the device self-healing 鈥� the team could cut it then place the two halves next to each other, and within a couple of hours it would repair with no hit to performance. 鈥淭his would extend the life of the devices,鈥� says Xiao.

This also means the device is easy to recycle. Xiao鈥檚 team soaked one in an alcohol-based solution to break down the polyimine, freeing the generators and liquid metal. The group then created a new polyimine film from the solution and recombined it with the components from the old device to create a new one with comparable performance. 鈥淭his can lead to mass production of recycled electronics and reduce electronic waste from wearable devices,鈥� says Xiao.