A damage-tolerant, self-healing and multifunctional triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are subjected to repeated contact and separations during operation, which inevitably cause damage from mechanical forces, leading to interface mismatch and function loss. Although self-healing property has been utilized to prolong the service life of flexible TENGs, triboelectric nanogenerators which can work stably in extreme mechanical environments have not been developed. Herein, we report a flexible single-mode triboelectric nanogenerator named V-PANI-TENG which not only have strong damage-tolerant ability including puncture-resistant ability to resist sabotage and tear-resistant ability to defend further crack propagation, but also show excellent self-healing performance upon damage based on the well-designed tribolayer PMBEug-OH-V-2–4 and electrode material PMBEug-OH-PANI-20%. Moreover, the V-PANI-TENG can also be used as an efficient self-powered sensor to monitor the movement of human body or detect the road surface roughness. Given the extraordinary durability and unprecedented applications resulting from novel material designs, this work provides an effective way to develop triboelectric nanogenerators which can work stably in extreme mechanical environments and broaden the application scenarios of triboelectric nanogenerators.