Advances in carbon nanomaterial-based triboelectric wearable devices for human health monitoring

Due to the frequent occurrence of various infectious and epidemic diseases in recent years, human health monitoring has garnered increasing attention. However, the limitations of traditional power supplies and the insufficient sensitivity of ordinary sensors have hindered the advancement of the human health monitoring field. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG), unfettered by power constraints, possess the capability to continuously capturing the minuscule mechanical energy generated by the human body and converting it into electrical signals. These generators, distinguished by their self-powered, portable, and highly sensitive attributes, endow electronic devices with enhanced energy-harvesting and multi-functional sensing capabilities. Consequently, they emerge as a viable and promising avenue for application in the domain of human body monitoring. Carbon nanomaterials, attributed to their unique physical and chemical properties, possess the potential to augment the triboelectric charge density and bolster the charge storage capability of the material. This increases TENG's versatility in capturing, transporting, and converting energy, ultimately resulting in an improvement of electrical output performance. This review discusses the advancements of carbon-based TENGs and their applications in human monitoring from various perspectives, including different dimensions of carbon nanomaterials, mechanisms that underlie the enhanced electrical output capacity of TENGs, and the utilization of TENGs in diverse types of human monitoring. In particular, it summarizes the key factors contributing to the enhanced output performance of TENGs. Simultaneously, it discusses the current limitations of TENG applications in human monitoring and envisions future trends aimed at enhancing TENG's applicability.