Fully stretchable, porous MXene-graphene foam nanocomposites for energy harvesting and self-powered sensing

Abstract

The growing demand for intelligent wearable electronic devices has spurred the rapid developments of high-performance deformable power supplies such as triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) with high output performance. However, the intrinsically stretchable TENGs especially those prepared with low-cost manufacturing approaches still suffer from poor performance. To address the challenge, this paper presents a fully stretchable TENG consisting of an intrinsically stretchable MXene/silicone elastomer and silver nanowires (Ag NWs)-graphene foam nanocomposite. The intrinsically stretchable TENG exhibits high output performance (voltage, current, and power of 73.6 V, 7.75 μA, and 2.76 W m−2), long-term reliability, and stable electrical output under various extreme deformation conditions. In addition to the application on the human skin and clothing for human motion monitoring and detecting the strength training postures, the intrinsically stretchable TENG can also harvest the intermittent mechanical energy from human bodies to charge various energy storage units such as commercial capacitors for driving wearable electronic devices. The resulting systems have been demonstrated in applications from home anti-theft to water resources early warning systems, which provide the proof-of-the-concept demonstrations for the next-generation standalone device platforms.