Highly Porous, Ultralight, Biocompatible Silk Fibroin Aerogel-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator

This study presents the fabrication of an ultralight, porous, and high-performance triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) utilizing silk fibroin (SF) aerogels and PDMS sponges as the friction layer. The transition from two-dimensional film friction layers to three-dimensional porous aerogels significantly increased the specific surface area, offering an effective strategy for designing high-performance SF aerogel-based TENGs. The TENG incorporating the porous SF aerogel exhibited optimal output performance at a 3% SF concentration, achieving a maximum open circuit voltage of 365 V, a maximum short-circuit current of 11.8 μA, and a maximum power density of 7.52 W/m². In comparison to SF-film-based TENGs, the SF-aerogel based TENG demonstrated a remarkable 6.5-fold increase in voltage and a 4.5-fold increase in current. Furthermore, the power density of our SF-based TENG surpassed the previously reported optimal values for SF-based TENGs by 2.4 times. Leveraging the excellent mechanical stability and biocompatibility of TENGs, we developed an SF-based TENG self-powered sensor for the real-time monitoring of subtle biological movements. The SF-based TENG exhibits promising potential as a wearable bioelectronic device for health monitoring.