A multifunctional TENG yarn integrated into agrotextile for building intelligent agriculture

Raining as a common phenomenon in agricultural environment sometimes may bring adverse effects on agricultural production, to remedy this, agrotextiles are extensively utilized. In this study, the technology of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is firstly integrated into agrotextiles. To construct a robust TENG yarn, a facile and effective method for the fabrication of stretchable electrode is developed, i.e. coating an elastic fibre with MXene ink, followed by spontaneous growth of Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs). By consecutively coating the conductive fibre with PDMS, the final developed triboelectric yarn (diameter of ~400 μm) is demonstrated to possess extraordinary output performance, generating a voltage of 7.7 V with a effective contact length of 3 cm. Moreover, the excellent mechanical property, highly stretchability, outstanding robustness, and considerable hydrophobicity of the TENG yarn also make it be capable of being woven into net or integrated into agrotextile. Thus, in the meantime of providing protection for crop plantation and animal husbandry to improve the quality and yield of agricultural products, the raindrop energy can also be harvested. Moreover, it can also act as a self-powered sensor to monitor dynamic force, which provide a basic information of weather condition. All in all, this developed TENG yarn enables many promising advantages such as being easily engineered and scaled up, therefore possessing great potential to apply in agrotextile for building intelligent agriculture.