Flexible stretchable tribo-negative films with exceptional output performance for high-temperature energy harvesting and self-powered sensor

Abstract

High temperature is a significant cause of failure of electromechanical products, achieving effective collection of triboelectric energy at high-temperatures is a major research emphasis. Improving the electrical outputs from triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) in extreme environments is crucial for its large-scale application and remains challenging. Further considering the major potential application for TENG is wearable electronics, a series of SEBS/fatty acid (SEBS/FA) skin-like flexible films were fabricated, which exhibit adjustable surface triboelectricity and enhanced triboelectric outputs at high-temperatures. The SEBS/FA based TENGs possess remarkable durability of over 10,000 contact-separation cycles, and exhibit exceptional electrical outputs in the heat. Thereinto, the output efficiency of SEBS-OA (octanoic acid) is up to 302.32 % at 110 °C and still above 100 % at 150 °C. The SEBS/FA based TENGs can efficiently harvest the mechanical energy in high-temperature environments to power commercial capacitors and LEDs. Notably, the SEBS/FA films still show enhanced electrical outputs even under extreme conditions with working ambient temperatures up to 90 °C and significant deformation (λ ≤ 4). The excellent electromechanical performances enable SEBS/FA based TENGs to be served as flexible energy collector and self-powered touch sensor for motion capture. The real-time tactile trajectory can be accurately mapped by a 5 × 5 sensing array. The SEBS/FA films exhibit great potential in energy harvesting and active real-time tactile sensing system in extreme environments.