Asymmetric-elastic-structure fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerators for wearable energy harvesting and human motion sensing

With rapid advancement in wearable electronics, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have attracted great attention for energy harvesting and bio-motion sensing because of low cost, environmentally friendly, safe, sustainable and easy availability. However, the existing structure is not well suitable and desirable for ordinary apparel. There are great challenges in balancing structural and motion adaptability with high-performance output for practical wearable applications. Therefore, herein we ingeniously combine human motions and the difference in elasticity between fabrics to develop an asymmetric-elastic-structure fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerator (AesF-TENG) which can realize rapid contact and separation under small deformation or force, and can efficiently harvest the mechanical energy under the natural motion of the human body to obtain better wearable potential. The AesF-TENG is composed of nylon and doped polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) used as positive and negative triboelectric materials respectively, and stretchable elastic fabric and conventional cotton fabric as the base. The developed AesF-TENG can efficiently harvest biomechanical energy and maintain stable electrical performance after 20 washes and 120,000 durability tests and also drive commercial electronic watch, calculator and LEDs. Additionally, it could be also utilized as a self-powered wearable sensor for wireless monitoring of human body motions. The prominent output power performance of AesF-TENG together with human motion and textiles show their great potentials for viable applications in wearable electronics and smart textiles in the near future.