Efficiently utilizing shallow and deep trapped charges on polyester fiber cloth surface by double working mode design for high output and durability TENG

Abstract

Textile-based TENG is regarded as a promising technology for intelligent electronics and next-generation wearable devices by converting ambient and human mechanical energy into electric energy. Low output and poor mechanical durability still limit the development of textile-TENGs, although many methods are applied to improve their performance. Here, a double mode TENG (DM-TENG) containing two output channels is proposed, where one is a corona discharge TENG (CD-TENG) and the other is an electrostatic induction TENG (EI-TENG). Different from traditional CD-TENG that only collects shallow trapped charges on dielectric tribo-layer, the DM-TENG efficiently utilizes deep trapped charges (not involved in corona discharge) by adding induction electrodes connected with series diodes below the tribo-layer, which improves overall output without a decrease in respective output. Moreover, a unique lint-free cloth is used not only as an electropositivity tribo-material but also as a buffer layer due to its advantages of flexibility and softness. A new durability record among this kind of air-breakdown based TENGs is achieved, where DM-TENG maintains 92 % electric output and excellent mechanical stability after 20 k cycles under 100 N pressure at 0.5 m s−1. In addition, DM-TENG reaches the output charge of 4.1 μC s−1, peak power density of 9.8 W m−2 (16 times higher than that of textiles DC-TENG) and average power density of 3.2 W m−2. Therefore, a new strategy provided in this work is an effective approach to enhance the output of flexible wearable TENGs. Data availabilityThe authors declare that the main data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supporting Information files. Extra data are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.