Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators with high-performance via optimized functional elastomer composited tribomaterials as wearable power source

摘要

Wearable power sources with high performance are attracting intensive attention, owing to their great potential in new-generation wearable electronics. Herein, we proposed a composited fabric with flexible functional elastomer layers (FEL@CF) and employed it as a negative tribomaterial in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). The FEL@CF consists of a low-temperature vulcanized silicone (LTV) electrification layer, CNTs/Ecoflex nano-composite layer, super-soft Ecoflex layer and conductive fabric substrate, which play critical roles on the output enhancement of FEL@CF-based TENG (abbreviated as FEL@CF-TENG). The effect of the thickness of the Ecoflex layer and CNTs content in the nanocomposite layer on the electrical performance of FEL@CF-TENG were systematically investigated. The FEL@CF with 180 mu m thick Ecoflex layer and 1.6 wt% CNTs content was realized as an optimal sample to obtain optimum output signals. The high outputs (similar to 490 V, similar to 43 mu A, similar to 70 nC, 1.6 mW/cm(2)) were obtained from the optimal FEL@CF-TENG (2.5x2.5 cm(2)) under small force (similar to 16 N) and low frequency (-1.5 Hz). The flexible FEL@CF-TENG can power for wearable electronics by harvesting biomechanical energy and operate in dual-electrodes mode (FEL@CF-DTENG) or single-electrode mode (FEL@CFSTENG). Especially, the power glove made of FEL@CF-STENG can contact with various daily-used objects for human motion energy harvesting. The durability and washability of FEL@CF-TENGs were also performed, exhibiting excellent stability even under harsh and complex conditions. All these merits of the FEL@CF-TENG not only provide a promising strategy for exploring high-performance wearable power source but also show great potential for applications in portable electronics and electronic textiles.