Hierarchically porous architectured stretchable fibrous materials in energy harvesting and self-powered sensing

Abstract

Stretchable electronic textiles have integrated seamlessly into our lives, promising advancements in health monitoring and intelligent wearables. However, one key challenge is to combine fibrous materials and functional materials to realize an integrity of stretchability and functionality by a simple and scalable method. To address this challenge, we propose a novel hierarchically buckled porous microstructure fabric (HBPMFs) via a surface self-assembly method, which can integrate with customized functional nanoparticles for tailorable wearable energy devices. The unique buckled porous microstructure endows HBPMFs with remarkable porous stretchability and high loading capacity of functional nanoparticles. Based on HBPMFs, triboelectric nanogenerators (HBPMFs-TENGs) with high structural integrity, stretchability and enhanced electrical outputs are design and fabricated. The as-made Ag@HBPMFs-TENG exhibits a greater enhancement in voltage by 4 times than the original fabric TENG, which can drive miniature wearable electronics. The features enable the Ag@HBPMFs-TENG in efficiently powering wearable electronics and acting as a self-powered sensor capable of detecting human motions. This work will offer a new insight for porous stretchable energy devices by designing unique microstructural surfaces on commercial fibrous materials.