Research Progress of Fabrics with Different Geometric Structures for Triboelectric Nanogenerators in Flexible and Wearable Electronics

Widespread reliance on fossil fuels, and the resulting imbalance between energy supply and demand have emerged as significant obstacles to achieving sustainable development. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) offer a viable solution to this problem. Among the various materials used in TENGs, fabrics with geometric structures have attracted considerable interest because of their advantageous properties, such as their light weight, breathable structures, favorable softness, and excellent breathability. This review provides a comprehensive introduction to fabric geometric (fabric structure with yarn as the basic unit, including woven fabrics formed by warp and weft yarns and knitted fabrics formed by yarn coils, etc.) TENGs, including their definition, working principle, and mechanisms, and explores the recent progress in TENGs based on one-, two-, and three-dimensional structures, classifying them into woven and knitted fabrics according to the fabrication method. We summarize the advantages and disadvantages of TENGs with different dimensions. Considering the intrinsically limited conductivity of the fiber and fabric, progress in improving the comprehensive output performance of TENGs via combination with other conductive materials and surface modification is discussed. Finally, this review concludes with a discussion of the challenges, opportunities, and potential applications related to TENGs based on fabric geometric structures. This study is expected to provide readers with new strategies and conceptual ideas to improve the performance of TENGs constructed with fabrics, particularly through the optimization of their structures.

Automated summary

This review focuses on fabric geometric structures for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), discussing their definition, working principle, and mechanisms. It classifies TENGs into woven and knitted fabrics based on the fabrication method and explores recent progress in one-, two-, and three-dimensional structures. The advantages and disadvantages of TENGs with different dimensions are summarized, and the potential for improving their performance through combination with conductive materials and surface modification is discussed. The review concludes with a discussion of challenges, opportunities, and potential applications related to TENGs based on fabric geometric structures.