Humidity-Resistant, Conductive Fabric-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Efficient Energy Harvesting and Human-Machine Interaction Sensing

With the rapid development of triboelectric nano-generators (TENGs), the exploration of self-powered, flexible, and wearable electronic devices has attracted widespread attention. However, the choice of tribomaterials and high humidity environment have a significant impact on the triboelectricity of TENG. Therefore, we prepared a composite fabric (HPC) with superhydrophobic and conductive properties, which was used simultaneously as a tribopositive material and electrode for the construction of promising wearable TENGs. Specifically, the loading of polydopamine, carbon nanotubes, and polypyrrole on the surface of the cotton fabric makes it have not only conductivity but also enhanced tribopositive polarity. Then, cetyltrimethox-ysilane was selected to modify it to obtain superhydrophobicity. Compared with the common TENGs with a separate tribolayer and electrode, the integrated HPC-TENG shows the advantages of simpler structure and lighter wear. Moreover, compared with the unmodified fabric-based TENG, the performance of the proposed HPC-TENG is improved by nearly 7.2 times, and the maximum power density can reach 2.6 W m(-2). This remarkable output can be attributed to the combination of strong electron-giving groups, high electrical conductivity, and abundant micro-and nanorough structure of the HPC fabric. More importantly, due to the water repellency of the fabric surface, the high output performance can be maintained under high humidity conditions. In addition, HPC-TENG has potential applications as pressure sensors for human motion status monitoring and multichannel sensing for smart game blanket entertainment. The newly designed HPC-TENG offers a new strategy for the development of superhydrophobic fabrics with an electrical conductivity, energy harvesting, and self-powered sensor.

Automated summary

With the rapid development of TENGs, self-powered, flexible, and wearable electronic devices have gained significant attention. This study prepared a composite fabric (HPC) with superhydrophobic and conductive properties, which was used as both a tribopositive material and electrode for TENGs. Compared to conventional TENGs with separate tribolayers and electrodes, the integrated HPC-TENG offers a simpler structure and lighter wear. Additionally, it demonstrates improved performance and high output even under high humidity conditions.