Abstract
The viable application of soft electronics/robotics relies on the development of power devices which are desired to be flexible, deformable, or even self-healable. We report here a shape-adaptive, self-healable triboelectric nanogenerator (SS-TENG) for harvesting biomechanical energies. The use of a viscoelastic polymer, normally known as Silly Putty, as the electrification material and as the matrix of a carbon-nanotube-filled composite (CNT-putty) electrode endows the SS-TENG the capability of adapting to arbitrary irregular surfaces and instantaneous healing from mechanical damage (almost completely recovered in 3 min without extra stimuli). Furthermore, the output performances of the SS-TENG have also been significantly improved because (i) the ideal soft contact is achieved at the solid-solid interfaces for more effective contact electrification and (ii) the introduced cation dopants make the putty even more tribo-negative than polytetrafluoroethylene. The SS-TENG can be adhered to any curvy surface, tailored, and reshaped into arbitrary configurations and utilized as a power supply for small electronics, suggesting promising applications in soft electronics/robotics in the future.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 8936-8945 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | ACS Nano |
Volume | 13 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 27 Aug 2019 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- putty
- self-healing
- shape-adaptive
- soft electronics
- triboelectric nanogenerators