Direct Current Fabric Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Biomotion Energy Harvesting

Chaoyu Chen, Hengyu Guo, Lijun Chen, Yi Cheng Wang, Xianjie Pu, Weidong Yu, Fumei Wang, Zhaoqun Du, Zhong Lin Wang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have demonstrated their promising potential in biomotion energy harvesting. A combination of the TENG and textile materials presents an effective approach toward smart fabric. However, most traditional fabric TENGs with an alternating current (AC) have to use a stiff, uncomfortable, and unfriendly rectifier bridge to obtain direct current (DC) to store and supply power for electronic devices. Here, a DC fabric TENG (DC F-TENG) with the most common plain structure is designed to harvest biomotion energy by tactfully taking advantage of the harmful and annoying electrostatic breakdown phenomenon of clothes. A small DC F-TENG (1.5 cm × 3.5 cm) can easily light up 416 serially connected light-emitting diodes. Furthermore, some yarn supercapacitors are fabricated and woven into the DC F-TENG to harvest and store energy and to power electronic devices, such as a hygrothermograph or a calculator, which shows great convenience and high efficiency in practice. This low-cost and efficient DC F-TENG which can directly generate DC energy without using the rectifier bridge by harvesting energy from unhealthy electrostatic breakdown has great potential as a lightweight, flexible, wearable, and comfortable energy-harvesting device in the future.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)4585-4594
Number of pages10
JournalACS Nano
Volume14
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 28 2020

Keywords

  • direct current
  • energy harvesting
  • fabric
  • triboelectric nanogenerator
  • yarn supercapacitors

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Engineering
  • General Materials Science
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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