A Wearable Toxic Gas-Monitoring Device Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self-Powered Aniline Early Warning

With the increasingly serious air pollution and rapid progress in nanotechnology, portable and wearable sensing devices are becoming indispensable to people's lives. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) captures wide attention due to its safe, highly efficient, and environmentally friendly way to drive portable electronics. In this work, by adjusting the doping ratio and optimizing the annealing temperature, a new kind of low-resistant rGO-In2O3 semiconductor composite is synthesized and innovatively used as TENG electrode. The as-fabricated rGO-In2O3-TENG is used as a monitoring unit and exhibits advantages of excellent linear sensibility (200-1200 ppm), good response ( increment I/I-a = 0.26, 600 ppm), and outstanding selectivity toward aniline toxic gas. More importantly, compared with the common room-temperature semiconductor gas sensor, the self-powered rGO-In2O3-TENG monitoring unit is endowed with much shorter response/recovery time. By combining rGO-In2O3-TENG monitoring unit, conversion circuit, and visualization warning lights, a visual wearable aniline early-warning device is fabricated. The present results provide a novel idea for developing a new type of aniline sensor with self-powered property of low cost and portability, and may also be extended to the design of other toxic gases-monitoring system.