Preparation and performance of 3-D woven triboelectric nanogenerators with integrated friction and spacer layers

Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (t-TENGs) integrate new energy harvesting technologies with traditional textile technologies, giving collection and sensing capabilities to textiles while maintaining their resistance to mechanical deformation, design diversity, and wear resistance. However, its development has some problems, such as low output power, poor integrity, and low comfort. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3-D) woven triboelectric nanogenerator with integrated friction and spacer layers was designed, which had a low preparation cost, simple preparation process, structural integrity, and mechanical stability. The rectangular hollow structure formed by the 3-D spacer fabric provided space for contact and separation between the friction layers. At the frequency of 1 Hz and the force of 30 N, the 3-D woven triboelectric nanogenerator integrated with the friction and the spacer layers achieved the open-circuit voltage of 14.06 V and the short-circuit current of 30.67nA, and light the LED. At the same time, it can also be used as a self-powered sensor to monitor human movement, which has excellent development potential in self-powered textiles.