Ti@MoS2 incorporated Polypropylene/Nylon fabric-based porous, breathable triboelectric nanogenerator as respiration sensor and ammonia gas sensor applications

Abstract

High output and non-interrupted power supply from fabric-based nanogenerators still remain a major challenge in developing self-powered wearable electronic applications. Addressing this, we demonstrate a low-cost, lead-free triboelectric nanogenerator based on hydrothermally grown Titanium (Ti) functionalized Molybdenum Disulfide (MoS2) interspersed polypropylene (PP) cloth and sandwiched with Nylon cloth for a highly sensitive respiration sensor and self-powered ammonia gas sensor. The nanogenerator with the device configuration Cu/Ti@MoS2/PP: Nylon /Ag is attached to a respiratory mask, and the open-circuit voltage (Voc) and short-circuit current density (JSC) during respiration cycles were obtained as 29.3 V and 42.7 µA/cm2 respectively. A significant difference in the breath pattern of human respiration cycles. Further, a fully self-powered ammonia gas sensor was demonstrated by integrating the triboelectric nanogenerator with Ti@MoS2/PP ammonia sensor. The self-powered Ti- MoS2 on PP cloth-based gas sensor driven by TENG displays an excellent response with a wide dynamic sensing range of ammonia gas from 200 ppb to 2600 ppb at room temperature, with a high sensitivity, selectivity and a rapid response time. This study explores the bifunctional nature of Ti@MoS2 nanoparticles as a respiratory mask and a self-powered ammonia gas sensor fabricated with excellent potential for self-powered health diagnostic applications.