Fabric based wearable triboelectric nanogenerators for human machine interface

Electronic textiles received significant attention with the advancements in materials for wearable electronics. Lack of washing stability and the need for an external power source for wearable electronics are the two major problems that needs to be addressed urgently. Significant portion of the reported solutions fail to propose simple and scalable production steps. In this study, a low cost and scalable design was proposed as a combined solution for aforementioned problems. Thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) film laminated silver nanowire (Ag NW) modified fabrics were utilized as triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) electrodes to self-power wearable devices for human machine interfacing. Electrical resistance changes and Joule heating performances of the fabricated devices were investigated and a washing stability up to 15 washing cycles was demonstrated. From the fabricated TENGs, a maximum power output of 1.25 W/m2 was obtained with an open circuit voltage and short circuit current of -162 V and -42 µA, respectively. In order to demonstrate the true potential of fabricated TENGs, a self-powered e-wristband was developed as a human machine interface and was used as a keyboard to control basic computer operations.