Shape-Adaptive, Self-Healable Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Enhanced Performances by Soft Solid-Solid Contact Electrification

Yanghui Chen, Xiong Pu*, Mengmeng Liu, Shuangyang Kuang, Panpan Zhang, Qilin Hua, Zifeng Cong, Wenbin Guo, Weiguo Hu, Zhong Lin Wang

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

130 Citations (Scopus)

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8936-8945
Number of pages10
JournalACS Nano
Volume13
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Aug 2019
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • putty
  • self-healing
  • shape-adaptive
  • soft electronics
  • triboelectric nanogenerators

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Chen, Y., Pu, X., Liu, M., Kuang, S., Zhang, P., Hua, Q., Cong, Z., Guo, W., Hu, W., & Wang, Z. L. (2019). Shape-Adaptive, Self-Healable Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Enhanced Performances by Soft Solid-Solid Contact Electrification. ACS Nano, 13(8), 8936-8945. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.9b02690