Textile-integrated MoS2-PDMS single electrode triboelectric nanogenerator for vibrational energy harvesting and biomechanical motion sensing

With the increasing demand for portable electronics, durable and flexible textile-based single electrode triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have received a significant amount of attention. In this work, we have proposed a flexible textile based single electrode TENG (STENG) composed of MoS2-PDMS composite film. The effect of the concentration (0–10 wt%) of MoS2 in PDMS on the output performance of the as-fabricated devices was systematically studied. The STENG with a 6 wt% concentration of MoS2 exhibits the best output performance with an open-circuit output voltage, short-circuit output current density, and maximum instantaneous output power density of ∼ 320 V, ∼ 15.4 µA/cm2, and ∼ 3.2 mW/cm2, respectively. The enhancement in the output characteristics of the STENG can be explained by the formation of network of nanocapacitors, where the layers of MoS2 behave as electrodes and the insulating PDMS behaves as a nanodielectric. The powering capability of the as-fabricated STENG was tested by charging commercial capacitors and directly flashing 100 commercially available LEDs without any external charge storage component. The textile-based MoS2-PDMS composite is not only used as STENG, but also as a human motion sensor capable of detecting diverse human actions, including wrist bending, arm bending, and leg bending. As a result of its flexible structure, scalable manufacturing process, and ability to sense human motions, the developed MoS2-PDMS composite STENG has promising applications in self-powered wearable electronics and human-machine interaction.