Scalable textile manufacturing methods for fabricating triboelectric nanogenerators with balanced electrical and wearable properties

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are foreseen as a leading candidate to harvest mechanical energy from ambient sources such as human body movements. However, wearable TENGs, which are used for this purpose, require adequate wearability for long durations, in addition to sufficient electrical outputs. So far, it has been difficult to achieve this through the predominantly plastic-based wearable TENGs constructed using conventional nanogenerator fabrication methods. This Article evaluates the use of textile materials and scalable fabrication techniques to develop TENGs targeting balanced electrical and wearable properties. The fabrication process is conducted using yarn-coating, dip-coating, and screen-printing techniques, which are common textile manufacturing methods, and converted into fabrics using flat-bed knitting, resulting in TENGs with improved wearable and electrical performances. The electrical properties (open circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current (Isc), and short circuit charge (Qsc)) and wearable properties (air permeability, stretch and recovery, and moisture management) of these structures are evaluated, during which the yarn-coated TENG resulted in maximum electrical outputs recording Voc ≈ 35 V, Isc ≈ 60 nA, and Qsc ≈ 12 nC, under mild excitations. In terms of wearability, the yarn-coated TENG again performed exceptionally during the majority of tests providing the best moisture management, air permeability (101 cm³/cm²/s), and stretch (∼75%), thus proving its suitability for wearable TENG applications.