A team of Chinese scientists has created a new type of rubber capable of converting body heat into electricity, a development that could revolutionize wearable technology and smart textiles, the South China Morning Post reported Monday.

The study, published on August 13 in the journal Nature, details how researchers at Peking University's School of Materials Science and Engineering combined semiconducting polymers with elastic rubber to produce a material that is both highly stretchable and conductive.

"We are the first in the world to propose the concept of thermoelectric rubber ... Such thermal devices are comfortable to wear and efficiently convert the body's heat energy into electrical energy with less heat loss," explained Lei Ting, the project's corresponding author.

The technology takes advantage of the temperature gap between the human body, normally around 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), and the surrounding environment, typically between 20 and 30 degrees Celsius. This difference is used to generate electricity.

According to the researchers, the innovation could be applied in several fields: clothing embedded with the rubber could charge a phone in a pocket, regulate body temperature, or automatically power wearables such as smartwatches. They also noted the material could support communication equipment in areas without electricity by utilizing firewood as a heat source.

The team's findings mark what they describe as an unprecedented step in merging energy generation with comfort and practicality in everyday materials.

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