Stretchable, Washable, and Ultrathin Triboelectric Nanogenerators as Skin-Like Highly Sensitive Self-Powered Haptic Sensors

Accompanying the boom in multifunctional wearable electronics, flexible, sustainable, and wearable power sources are facing great challenges. Here, a stretchable, washable, and ultrathin skin-inspired triboelectric nanogenerator (SI-TENG) to harvest human motion energy and act as a highly sensitive self-powered haptic sensor is reported. With the optimized material selections and structure design, the SI-TENG is bestowed with some merits, such as stretchability (approximate to 800%), ultrathin (approximate to 89 mu m), and light-weight (approximate to 0.23 g), which conformally attach on human skin without disturbing its contact. A stretchable composite electrode, which is formed by homogenously intertwining silver nanowires (AgNWs) with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) nanofiber networks, is fabricated through synchronous electrospinning of TPU and electrospraying of AgNWs. Based on the triboelectrification effect, the open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and power density of the SI-TENG with a contact area of 2x2 cm(2)and an applied force of 8 N can reach 95 V, 0.3 mu A, and 6 mW m(-2), respectively. By integrating the signal-processing circuits, the SI-TENG with excellent energy harvesting and self-powered sensing capability is demonstrated as a haptic sensor array to detect human actions. The SI-TENG exhibits extensive applications in the fields of human-machine interface and security systems.

Automated summary

This study presents a stretchable, washable, and ultrathin skin-inspired triboelectric nanogenerator (SI-TENG) for harvesting human motion energy and acting as a highly sensitive self-powered haptic sensor. With optimized design, the generator achieves efficient energy harvesting and self-powered sensing, making it applicable for human-machine interfaces and security systems.