Amino‐Terminated Hyperbranched Polymer‐Based Recyclable Elastic Fibers for a Breathable and Antibacterial Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

Realizing recyclable triboelectric active materials with commendable elasticity, breathability, and durable antibacterial performance is significant for the sustainable development of wearables and bioelectronics. A spinnable elastic polymer (MPVA) is developed by modifying polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) with amino-terminated hyperbranched polymers (HBP-NH 2 ), demonstrating a junction-reinforced electrospun nanofiber membrane (MPVA) with lower Young's modulus and improved stretchability, which exhibits robust network structure and tunable air permeability to sustain 50 tensile cycles at 50% strain. Trapped silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in the fibers reduced in situ by the terminal groups of HBP-NH 2 demonstrate MPVA/Ag NPs nanofiber membrane with reliable antibacterial capability for both E. coli and S. aureus. By spraying a silver nanowires (Ag NWs) electrode on the antibacterial fiber membrane to serve as a single-electrode stretchable (≈50% strain) triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), it is demonstrated that stable triboelectric output can be maintained regardless of resistance change (𝚫R/R 0 ) within 50%. Self-powered identification of contacting objects is demonstrated. The antibacterial breathable fiber membrane can be facilely dissolved in water for regeneration via electrospinning, which is promising for sustainable development of future transient TENGs and bioelectronics.

Elastic Fibers/Fabrics for Wearables and Bioelectronics

“…TENG shows the merits of extensive material options and relatively higher power output. [184,[230][231][232] Xiong et al reported a wearable textile-TENG through dip-coating of black phosphorus and hydrophobic cellulose oleoyl ester nanoparticles (HCOENPs) on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric, skin contacts can trigger the device to harvest biomedical energy. [203] As shown in Figure 5b, the device showed instantaneous maximum output voltage and current density is 880 V and 1.1 μW cm −2 , which maintained stable performance regardless of subjecting to extreme bending, twisting, stretching, and washing.…”

“…TENG shows the merits of extensive material options and relatively higher power output. [ 184 , 230 , 231 , 232 ] Xiong et al. reported a wearable textile‐TENG through dip‐coating of black phosphorus and hydrophobic cellulose oleoyl ester nanoparticles (HCOENPs) on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fabric, skin contacts can trigger the device to harvest biomedical energy.…”

Rational Design of Advanced Triboelectric Materials for Energy Harvesting and Emerging Applications

“…Functional designs by means of chemical modification have great progress in the enhancement of electrical properties and extension of hydrophobicity for electrospun nanofibers for TENGs. [66,283] These methods are expected to be used for microspheres and hierarchically structured materials. Furthermore, multilayer assembly of electrospun materials with complementary properties can significantly improve their barrier or penetration, [81,93] and Janus film via specific electrospinning process (e.g., water-assisted electrospinning, [269] side-by-side electrospinning, [284] etc.)…”

Stretchable Composite Conductive Fibers for Wearables

“…Various functional materials and processing methods have been exploited for SCCFs fabrication, aiming to develop fibers with higher stretchability and conductivity, which are important for wearable devices that require high mechanical compliance and electrical stability. [194][195][196] For various wearable devices, SCCFs could be used as electrodes or sensing modules, serving devices such as sensors, energy harvesters, storage, actuators, heaters, displays, etc. As the improvement of SCCFs performances, increasing efforts are focused on the integration of different fiber-based devices to develop functional platforms or systems for providing more safe and friendly interface devices for wearables and human-machine interactions.…”