Thin,soft,3D printing enabled crosstalk minimized triboelectric nanogenerator arrays for tactile sensing

With the requirements of self-powering sensors in flexible electronics,wearable triboelectric nanogenerators(TENGs)have attracted great attention due to their advantages of excellent electrical outputs and low-cost processing routes.The crosstalk effect between adjacent sensing units in TENGs significantly limits the pixel density of sensor arrays.Here,we present a skin-integrated,flexible TENG sensor array with 100 sensing units in an overall size of 7.5 cm×7.5 cm that can be processed in a simple,low-cost,and scalable way enabled by 3D printing.All the sensing units show good sensitivity of 0.11 V/kPa with a wide range of pressure detection from 10 to 65 kPa,which allows to accurately distinguish various tactile formats from gentle touching(as low as 2 kPa)to hard pressuring.The 3D printing patterned substrate allows to cast triboelectric layers of polydimethylsiloxane in an independent sensing manner for each unit,which greatly suppresses the cross talk arising from adjacent sensing units,where the maximum crosstalk output is only 10.8%.The excellent uniformity and reproducibility of the sensor array offer precise pressure mapping for complicated pattern loadings,which demonstrates its potential in tactile sensing and human-machine interfaces.

Hybrid energy cell for simultaneously harvesting wind, solar, and chemical energies

We report a hybrid energy cell that can simultaneously or individually harvest wind, solar, and chemical energies to power some electronic devices. By utilizing the wind driven relative rotations between a polytetrafluoroethylene film and an etched A1 film attached on two acrylic tubes, the fabricated triboelectric nanogenerator （TENG） can deliver an open-circuit voltage of about 90 V, a short-circuit current density of about 0.5 mA/m2, and a maximum power density of 16 mW/m2, which is capable of directly lighting up 20 blue light- emitting-diodes （LEDs）. By integrating a TENG, a solar cell, and an electrochemical cell, a hybrid energy cell has been fabricated to simultaneously scavenge three different types of energies. As compared with the individual energy units, the hybrid energy cell exhibited much better performance in charging a capacitor. Moreover, we also demonstrated that the hybrid energies generated can be stored in a Li-ion battery for powering a commercial wind speed sensor and a temperature sensor. This work represents significant progress toward practical applications of hybrid energy cells, providing potential solutions for simul- taneously scavenging wind, solar, and chemical energies.

Flexible self-charging power units for portable electronics based on folded carbon paper

The urgent demand for portable electronics has promoted the development of high-efficienc）9 sustainable, and even stretchable self-charging power sources. In this work, we propose a flexible self-charging power unit based on folded carbon （FC） paper for harvesting mechanical energy from human motion and power portable electronics. The present unit mainly consists of a triboelectric nanogenerator （FC-TENG） and a supercapacitor （FC-SC）, both based on folded carbon paper, as energy harvester and storage device, respectively. This favorable geometric design provides the high Young＇s modulus carbon paper with excellent stretchability and enables the power unit to work even under severe deformations, such as bending, twisting, and rolling. In addition, the tensile strain can be maximized by tuning the folding angle of the triangle-folded carbon paper. Moreover, the waterproof property of the packaged device make it washable, protect it from human sweat, and enable it to work in harsh environments. Finally, the as-prepared self-charging power unit was tested by placing it on the human body to harvest mechanical energy from hand tapping, foot treading, and arm touching, successfully powering an electronic watch. This work demonstrates the impressive potential of stretchable self-charging power units, which will further promote the development of high Young＇s modulus materials for wearable/portable electronics.

Dipole-moment-induced effect on contact electrification for triboelectric nanogenerators

Triboelectric nanogenerators （TENGs） have been demonstrated as an effective way to harvest mechanical energy to drive small electronics. The density of triboelectric charges generated on contact surfaces between two distinct materials is a critical factor for dictating the output power. We demonstrate an approach to effectively tune the triboelectric properties of materials by taking advantage of the dipole moment in polarized polyvinylidene fluoride （PVDF）, leading to substantial enhancement of the output power density of the TENG. The output voltage ranged from 72 V to 215 V under a constant contact force of 50 N. This work not only provides a new method of enhancing output power of TENGs, but also offers an insight into charge transfer in contact electrification by investigating dipole-moment-induced effects on the electrical output of TENGs.

Triboelectric nanogenerator enhanced multilayered antibacterial nanofiber air filters for efficient removal of ultrafine particulate matter

We developed a high-efficiency rotating triboelectric nanogenerator （R-TENG）- enhanced multi.layered antibacterial polyimide （PI） nanofiber air filters for removing ultrafine particulate matter （PM） from ambient atmosphere. Compared to single- layered PI nanofiber filters, the multilayered nanofiber filter can completely remove all of the particles with diameters larger than 0.54 ffm and shows enhanced removal efficiency for smaller PM particles. After connecting with a R-TENG, the removal efficiency of the filer for ultrafine partides is further enhanced. The highest removal efficiency for ultrafine particulate matter is 94.1% at the diameter of 53.3 nm and the average removal efficiency reached 89.9%. Despite an increase in the layer number, the thickness of each individual layer of the film decreased, and hence, the total pressure drop of the filter decreased instead of increasing. Moreover, the nanofiber film exhibited high antibacterial activity because of the addition of a small amount of silver nanoparticles. This technology with zero ozone release and low pressure drop is appropriate for cleaning air, haze treatment, and bacterial control.

Self-powered acoustic source Iocator in underwater environment based on organic film triboelectric nano-generator

Detecting/sensing targets underwater has very important applications in environmental study, civil engineering and national security. In this paper, an organic-film based triboelectric nanogenerator （TENG） has been successfully demonstrated for the first time as a self-powered and high sensitivity acoustic sensor to detect underwater targets at low frequencies around 100 Hz. This innovative, cost-effective, simple-design TENG consists of a thin-film-based Cu electrode and a polytetrafluoroethylene （PTFE） film with nanostructures on its surfaces. On the basis of the coupling effect between triboelectrification and electrostatic induction, the sensor generates electrical output signals in response to incident sound waves. Operating at a resonance frequency of 110 Hz, under an acoustic pressure of 144.2 dBspc, the maximum open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of the generator can respectively reach 65 V and 32 ~A underwater. The directional dependence pattern has a bi-directional shape with a total response angle of 60~. Its sensitivity is higher than -185 dB in the frequency range from 30 Hz to 200 Hz. The highest sensitivity is -146 dB at resonance frequency. The three-dimensional coordinates of an acoustic source were identified by four TENGs, self-powered active sensors, and the location of the acoustic source was determined with an error about 0.2 m. This study not only expands the application fields of TENGs from the atmosphere to water, but also shows the TENG is a promising acoustic source locator in underwater environments.

Cylindrical spiral triboelectric nanogenerator

In recent years, triboelectric nanogenerators have attracted much attention because of their unique potential in self-powered nanosensors and nanosystems. In this paper, we report a cylindrical spiral tdboelectric nanogenerator （S-TENG）, which not only can produce high electric output to power display devices, but also can be used as a self-powered displacement sensor integrated on a measurement ruler. At a sliding speed of 2.5 m/s, S-TENG can generate a short-circuit current （Isc） of 30 μA and an open-circuit voltage （Voc） of 40 V. As the power source, we fabricate a transparent and flexible hand-driven S-TENG. Furthermore, we demonstrate a self-powered S-TENG-based measuring tapeline that can accurately measure and display the pulled-out distance without the need for an extra battery. The results obtained indicate that TENG-based devices have good potential for application in self-powered measurement systems.