The development of stretchable electronics requires the invention of compatible high-performance power sources, such as stretchable supercapacitors and batteries. In this work, two-dimensional (2D) titanium carbide (Ti 3 C 2 T x ) MXene is being explored for flexible and printed energy storage devices by fabrication of a robust, stretchable high-performance supercapacitor with reduced graphene oxide (RGO) to create a composite electrode. The Ti 3 C 2 T x /RGO composite electrode combines the superior electrochemical and mechanical properties of Ti 3 C 2 T x and the mechanical robustness of RGO resulting from strong nanosheet interactions, larger nanoflake size, and mechanical flexibility. It is found that the Ti 3 C 2 T x /RGO composite electrodes with 50 wt % RGO incorporated prove to mitigate cracks generated under large strains. The composite electrodes exhibit a large capacitance of 49 mF/cm 2 (∼490 F/cm 3 and ∼140 F/g) and good electrochemical and mechanical stability when subjected to cyclic uniaxial (300%) or biaxial (200% × 200%) strains. The as-assembled symmetric supercapacitor demonstrates a specific capacitance of 18.6 mF/cm 2 (∼90 F/cm 3 and ∼29 F/g) and a stretchability of up to 300%. The developed approach offers an alternative strategy to fabricate stretchable MXene-based energy storage devices and can be extended to other members of the large MXene family.
The physical filtration mechanism of a traditional face mask has a low removal efficiency of ultrafine particulates in the size range of 10-1000 nm, which are badly harmful to human health. Herein, a novel self-powered electrostatic adsorption face mask (SEA-FM) based on the poly(vinylidene fluoride) electrospun nanofiber film (PVDF-ESNF) and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) driven by respiration (R-TENG) is developed. The ultrafine particulates are electrostatically adsorbed by the PVDF-ESNF, and the R-TENG can continually provide electrostatic charges in this adsorption process by respiration. On the basis of the R-TENG, the SEA-FM shows that the removal efficiency of coarse and fine particulates is higher than 99.2 wt % and the removal efficiency of ultrafine particulates is still as high as 86.9 wt % after continually wearing for 240 min and a 30-day interval. This work has proposed as a new method of wearable air filtration and may have great prospects in human health, self-powered electronics, and wearable devices.
Smart skin is expected to be stretchable and tactile for bionic robots as the medium with the ambient environment. Here, a stretchable triboelectric-photonic smart skin (STPS) is reported that enables multidimensional tactile and gesture sensing for a robotic hand. With a grating-structured metal film as the bioinspired skin stripe, the STPS exhibits a tunable aggregation-induced emission in a lateral tensile range of 0-160%. Moreover, the STPS can be used as a triboelectric nanogenerator for vertical pressure sensing with a maximum sensitivity of 34 mV Pa . The pressure sensing characteristics can remain stable in different stretching conditions, which demonstrates a synchronous and independent sensing property for external stimuli with great durability. By integrating on a robotic hand as a conformal covering, the STPS shows multidimensional mechanical sensing abilities for external touch and different gestures with joints bending. This work has first demonstrated a triboelectric-photonic coupled multifunctional sensing terminal, which may have great applications in human-machine interaction, soft robots, and artificial intelligence.
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