Multifunctional Self-Powered Electronics Based on a Reusable Low-Cost Polypropylene Fabric Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

We report the development of low-cost triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) based on polypropylene (PP) fabrics formulated via an inexpensive melt-blowing process with an output voltage as high as 50 V. By disinfection methods such as exposure to steam, ethanol, and dry heat at 75 °C, the commercial medical masks and N95 filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) can be reused to fabricate PP fiber based TENGs, which provide a novel regime for energy-harvesting devices based on reusable materials. As a power source, the output of one TENG can drive 15 serially connected light-emitting diodes (LEDs) or a commercial electric calculator. PP fabric TENGs can also work as self-powered sensors for the high-sensitivity detection of mechanical impact. We provide examples where the TENG is used to detect biomechanical motion such as that associated with the extension of an elbow, the touch of a finger, the impact of footsteps, and the bending of a knee without an external power supply. Most importantly, these PP fabrics for TENGs can be obtained from decontaminated medical masks that are generated as tremendous wastes every day, which provide a great potential as sustainable energy. These properties suggest that PP fabric based TENGs are promising for harvesting energy from biological systems and that they may facilitate the large-scale production of a new range of inexpensive self-powered multifunctional wearable sensors for applications in healthcare, security, and information networks.

COVID-19 clinical waste reuse: A triboelectric touch sensor for IoT-cloud supported smart hand sanitizer dispenser

“…Jain et al proposed an effective pyrolysis method to convert PPE kit wastes into liquid fuels [5] . Shen et al synthesized low-cost polypropylene fabrics from waste masks using a melt-blowing process [6] .

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“… Waste materials Method of reuse Output performances Application Ref. V oc (V) I sc (µA) Pd (µW/cm 2 ) COVID-19 polymeric face masks, PPE, and gloves Pyrolysis - - - Preparation of bio-crude oil and char [4] PPE kit Pyrolysis - - - Preparation of liquid fuels [5] Clinical Polypropylene (PP) melt-blowing process 50 4 1.8 TENG as Energy harvester [6] Plastics and dry cells Directly utilized 83.8 101 26.54 TENG as Energy harvester [24] Plastic bags (PA and PVC) Directly utilized 35.7 5.85 15.26 TENG as Energy harvester [25] Laboratory Plastics and glasses Directly utilized 185 1.25 8.1 TENG as Energy harvester [26] Expired pharmaceutical drugs spray-coating 561 53 163 TENG as Energy harvester [27] Nitrile gloves and three-layer masks Directly utilized 50.7 4.8 6.39 TENG as Touch sensor for IoT cloud-supported sanitizer dispenser This work …”

Ultralight, Elastic, Hybrid Aerogel for Flexible/Wearable Piezoresistive Sensor and Solid–Solid/Gas–Solid Coupled Triboelectric Nanogenerator

“…Compared with the state‐of‐the‐art in the literature reports, the power density of GO/CNT HA‐TENG is relatively high (as shown in Table S1 in the Supporting Information). [ 38 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 ] Finally, the GO/CNT HA‐TENG was used to charge commercial capacitors, as shown in Figure 5h . When the working frequency is 1 Hz, three different capacitors (0.22, 1.0, and 3.3 µF) could be charged for 60 s through the rectifier, and charge the voltage of the capacitor to 5.05, 2.47, and 1.66 V respectively.…”

Economical Polypropylene‐Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self‐Powered Biomechanical Sensor Application

“…These robust material properties of PP film and Al foil are highly suitable for fabricating different shapes and structures of TENGs. Several researchers have reported TENGs composed of PP as one of the triboactive materials obtained from techniques such as commercial fiber masks, [ 38 ] the electrospun method, [ 39 ] hot processing and anodization, [ 40 ] hot pressing and physical imprinting, [ 41 ] which are time‐consuming as well as complicated. Even though advancement in the field is reaching new milestones, exploring ways for low‐cost manufacture of TENGs is always challenging.…”