Core–Shell-Yarn-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator Textiles as Power Cloths

TLDR

Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators promise sustainable power for wearables but struggle to retain cloth qualities. The authors aim to develop TENG textiles that function as power cloths by employing core–shell yarns. They achieve this by using core conductive fibers as electrodes surrounded by tightly twined polymer or natural fibers. The resulting textiles are comfortable, flexible, fashionable, washable, tailorable, compatible with large-scale manufacturing, and can harvest energy from human motion, indicating strong potential for wearable electronics.

Abstract

Although textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are highly promising because they scavenge energy from their working environment to sustainably power wearable/mobile electronics, the challenge of simultaneously possessing the qualities of cloth remains. In this work, we propose a strategy for TENG textiles as power cloths in which core–shell yarns with core conductive fibers as the electrode and artificial polymer fibers or natural fibrous materials tightly twined around core conductive fibers are applied as the building blocks. The resulting TENG textiles are comfortable, flexible, and fashionable, and their production processes are compatible with industrial, large-scale textile manufacturing. More importantly, the comfortable TENG textiles demonstrate excellent washability and tailorability and can be fully applied in further garment processing. TENG textiles worn under the arm or foot have also been demonstrated to scavenge various types of energy from human motion, such as patting, walking, and running. All of these merits of proposed TENG textiles for clothing uses suggest their great potentials for viable applications in wearable electronics or smart textiles in the near future.