Soft Tubular Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Biomechanical Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Abstract A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), fabricated by soft materials with advantages of flexibility, stretchability, and water resistance, is a potential means for biomechanical energy harvesting. Herein, a soft tubular TENG (ST‐TENG) is proposed, which is composed of a flexible conductive sponge as the inner electrode and a soft silicone tube as the dielectric layer with the helix outer electrode. The ST‐TENG can be built in outsoles and harvest various biomechanical energy including pressing, bending, and twisting. The output performance of ST‐TENG was thoroughly investigated and the surface charge density can reach to 175.4 µC m −2 . The ST‐TENG has stable and durable characteristics for 1.2 × 10 6 working cycles, 100 h soaking, and 5000 times bending. By walking or jogging with the ST‐TENG tubes, several portable electronics such as thermometer, digital watch, and calculator can be continuously powered. The soft energy harvester in this work has made a significant progress in self‐powered devices.