Continuous and scalable manufacture of amphibious energy yarns and textiles

TLDR

Biomechanical energy harvesting textiles convert mechanical energy into electricity, yet conventional nanogenerator devices are limited by difficult weaving, low flexibility, small size, and poor weatherability, restricting real‑world deployment. The study reports a highly stretchable triboelectric yarn engineered with elastic silicone rubber tubes and stainless steel yarns. A modified melt‑spinning process enables scalable manufacture of the self‑powered yarn. The yarn achieves 100‑meter length, tolerates 200% strain, delivers promising electrical output, resists liquid environments, and supports large‑area self‑powered textiles.

Abstract

Abstract Biomechanical energy harvesting textiles based on nanogenerators that convert mechanical energy into electricity have broad application prospects in next-generation wearable electronic devices. However, the difficult-to-weave structure, limited flexibility and stretchability, small device size and poor weatherability of conventional nanogenerator-based devices have largely hindered their real-world application. Here, we report a highly stretchable triboelectric yarn that involves unique structure design based on intrinsically elastic silicone rubber tubes and extrinsically elastic built-in stainless steel yarns. By using a modified melt-spinning method, we realize scalable-manufacture of the self-powered yarn. A hundred-meter-length triboelectric yarn is demonstrated, but not limited to this size. The triboelectric yarn shows a large working strain (200%) and promising output. Moreover, it has superior performance in liquid, therefore showing all-weather durability. We also show that the development of this energy yarn facilitates the manufacturing of large-area self-powered textiles and provide an attractive direction for the study of amphibious wearable technologies.