Nanowrinkle-patterned flexible woven triboelectric nanogenerator toward self-powered wearable electronics

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have attracted considerable interests in flexible electronics as self-powered sources with adaptability, flexibility, and multifunctionalities. Endowing TENG with wearability is considered to be one of the most promising and practical strategies to cater the fourth industrial revolution with the features of intelligence, information, miniaturization, portability, and low power consumption. Herein, nanowrinkle-patterned flexible woven structured TENGs (FW-TENGs) are fabricated based on a polydimethylsiloxane/polyvinylidene fluoride (PDMS/PVDF) composite films. Through systematically investigating and optimizing the dielectric property of composite film, impacts of film thickness and surface architectures, an instantaneous maximum power density of 832.05 mW/m2 is registered by the champion FW-TENG, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art woven structured TENGs. Moreover, the device presents a highly stable Voc output after continuous operation over 2200 cycles, implying the outstanding ability of structural retention and fatigue resistance during wearing FW-TENG. Stimulating by knee bending, arm swing and elbow bending, the self-powered FW-TENG is successfully realized with multi-adaptability and compatibility with various fabric clothes, demonstrating the great application potential as wearable electronics for mechanical energy harvesting, pressure sensing and human-machine interfacing without external energy supply.