Highly Stretchable All-Rubber-Based Thread-Shaped Wearable Electronics for Human Motion Energy-Harvesting and Self-Powered Biomechanical Tracking

• Main Authors: Jie Zhu, Xinghui Wang, Yilan Xing, Jianyi Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2019-07-01
• Series: Nanoscale Research Letters
• Subjects: Triboelectric nanogenerator; High stretchability; All-rubber-based thread; Biomechanical energy harvester; Self-powered sensor
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s11671-019-3085-9

Abstract The development of stretchable smart electronics has attracted great attentions due to their potential applications in human motions energy collection systems and self-powered biomechanical tracking technologies. Here, we present a newly stretchable all-rubber-based thread-shaped triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) composed of the silver-coated glass microspheres/silicone rubber as the stretchable conductive thread (SCT) and the silicone rubber-coated SCT (SSCT) as the other triboelectric thread. The stretchable all-rubber-based thread-shaped TENG (SATT) generates an open-circuit voltage of 3.82 V and short-circuit current of 65.8 nA under the 100% strain and can respond to different finger motion states. Furthermore, the self-powered smart textile (SPST) woven by the SCT and SSCT units has two kinds of working mechanisms about stretch-release and contact-separation modes. The stretching-releasing interaction between knitting units can generate an open-circuit voltage of 8.1 V and short-circuit current of 0.42 μA, and the contacting-separating mode occurs between cotton and two types material outside the SPST producing peak voltage of 150 V and peak current of 2.45 μA. To prove the promising applications, the SPST device is capable to provide electrical energy to commercial electronics and effectively scavenge full-range biomechanical energy from human joint motions. Therefore, this work provides a new approach in the applications of stretchable wearable electronics for power generation and self-powered tracking.