Large‐scale fabrication of core‐shell triboelectric braided fibers and power textiles for energy harvesting and plantar pressure monitoring

Abstract

Flexible and wearable energy harvesting devices and multifunctional sensors have been widely reported, but challenges in the large‐scale manufacturing process still exist. This work reports a large‐scale fabrication method of core‐shell triboelectric braided fibers that exhibit stable structure and strong tensile strength, which can be further integrated into power textiles with different fabric structures, such as weaving and knitting, with the purpose of biomechanical energy harvesting or plantar pressure monitoring. The triboelectric braided fibers integrating on the knitting power textiles exhibit good pressure sensitivity and fatigue resistance, which is combined with traditional socks to measure the pressure distribution of the plantar in different positions. The weaving power textiles exhibit high electrical output, which can be used for biomechanical energy harvesting and can easily light up 116 commercial LEDs. This large‐scale preparation approach provides more possibilities for power textiles applications in self‐powered wearable electronics and human–computer interfacing.

Emerging Self‐Powered Autonomous Sensing Triboelectric Fibers toward Future Wearable Human‐Computer Interaction Devices

“…Through high-speed ring spinning technology, ≈2,000 m of NPRY can be prepared in just 1 h. In order to overcome the shortcomings of complex preparation process and the inability to continuously produce, Li et al used a braiding machine to weave PVDF on the surface of silver-coated nylon fibers to make F-TENG with a core-shell structure (Figure 4b). [52] Yang et al prepared F-TENG by combining core-spun spinning method and surface coating method, [53] as displayed in Figure 4c. First, a conductive corespun yarn is produced using a core-spinning method.…”

Triboelectric nanogenerators as wearable power sources and self-powered sensors

“…Output electrical energy can light up 116 LEDs simultaneously and can be used as a plantar pressure sensor (Fig. 3f ) [ 50 ]. Frictional movements between the arm and the axilla can also be collected by a wearable TENG.…”

“…Copyright 2021, American Chemical Society; Copyright 2021, Elsevier. (e and f) Elbow [ 49 , 50 ]. Copyright 2019, Springer Nature; Copyright 2022, WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.…”

Manufacturing Technics for Fabric/Fiber-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators: From Yarns to Micro-Nanofibers

“…The related study was recently presented. For example, Dong et al reported a large-scale prepared core-shell type knitting triboelectric fiber [ 46 ]. As depicted in Figure 4 c, silver-coated nylon yarns were chosen as the electrode for its good flexibility, stitchability and excellent conductivity.…”