Textile-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Wearable Self-Powered Microsystems

Abstract

In recent years, wearable electronic devices have made considerable progress thanks to the rapid development of the Internet of Things. However, even though some of them have preliminarily achieved miniaturization and wearability, the drawbacks of frequent charging and physical rigidity of conventional lithium batteries, which are currently the most commonly used power source of wearable electronic devices, have become technical bottlenecks that need to be broken through urgently. In order to address the above challenges, the technology based on triboelectric effect, i.e., triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), is proposed to harvest energy from ambient environment and considered as one of the most promising methods to integrate with functional electronic devices to form wearable self-powered microsystems. Benefited from excellent flexibility, high output performance, no materials limitation, and a quantitative relationship between environmental stimulation inputs and corresponding electrical outputs, TENGs present great advantages in wearable energy harvesting, active sensing, and driving actuators. Furthermore, combined with the superiorities of TENGs and fabrics, textile-based TENGs (T-TENGs) possess remarkable breathability and better non-planar surface adaptability, which are more conducive to the integrated wearable electronic devices and attract considerable attention. Herein, for the purpose of advancing the development of wearable electronic devices, this article reviews the recent development in materials for the construction of T-TENGs and methods for the enhancement of electrical output performance. More importantly, this article mainly focuses on the recent representative work, in which T-TENGs-based active sensors, T-TENGs-based self-driven actuators, and T-TENGs-based self-powered microsystems are studied. In addition, this paper summarizes the critical challenges and future opportunities of T-TENG-based wearable integrated microsystems.

Wearable Multi-Functional Sensing Technology for Healthcare Smart Detection

“…Additionally, Zou et al have used ionic liquids and fabricated a bionic structure sensor that can monitor multiple positions of the human body underwater [53]. Significantly, textile-based wearable sensors are the new trend for detecting physiological signals [54,55].…”

Energy Harvesting Materials and Structures for Smart Textile Applications: Recent Progress and Path Forward

“…Table 1 provides a list of strengths and weaknesses of photovoltaic, piezoelectric, triboelectric, and thermoelectric energy harvesting within the context of smart/e-textiles application. If large progress has been made over the last few years and is still occurring at a rapid pace as evidenced by the large number of scientific articles recently published, the technologies behind wearable energy harvesting have not reached maturity yet and many challenges remain [151][152][153][154][155]. In general, technologies with high energy conversion efficiencies lack the flexibility and low weight required for smart/e-textile applications.…”

Textile-type triboelectric nanogenerator using Teflon wrapping wires as wearable power source

“…Substantial research has been conducted to produce wearable TENGs from wearable textiles [13][14][15]. The textile-type TENGs (T-TENG) are largely divided, based on the manufacturing method [16,17], into fabric and fiber. For fabric TENGs, the fabric itself is used as a tribo-material, or the fabric is directly coated with a functional material to be used as a functional fabric [18][19][20][21].…”