Industrial production of bionic scales knitting fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerator for outdoor rescue and human protection

Obtaining inspirations from natural selection have promoted wearable electronics innovation and provided a broad prospect for smart textiles compatible with excellent biological characteristics. Combining bionic scales with knitted structure can satisfy the conflicting requirements of protection and flexibility, which is vital to the smart outdoor garment application. However, it is very difficult to integrate high-speed fabrication and intelligentization of the complex bionic structure and the fabric while maintaining the original flexibility, comfort, and breathability of the fabric as much as possible. Herein, a novel, one-time, high-speed V-bed flat knitting fully-formed technology is used to prepare a bionic scales knitting triboelectric generator (BSK-TENG) as a new kind of wearable fabric with both intelligence and function. When used outdoors, the BSK-TENG can harvest water-drop energy and biomechanical energy owing to its distinctive 3D hierarchy structure. Besides, a multifunctional and intelligent personal outdoor rescue system with wireless signal transmission is also designed and manufactured by using the BSK-TENG as a self-powered and wearable human-computer interaction sensing device. What’s more, due to the obvious anisotropy exhibited during bending, the BSK-TENG can be further used as joint supporting protection for outdoor sports. This mass-produced 3D BSK-TENG not only has great commercial potential, but also can provide a promising research direction for multifunctional wearable devices in energy harvesting, self-powered sensing and human health protection.