A fabric-based electrode for wearable piezoelectric nanogenerators to distinguish sense human motions

To develop a PENG with both good comfort and high performance, we designed a wearable Ag/PEI/Cotton fabric electrode. Herein, PEI was used as a bridge to connect the Ag nanoparticles with cotton fabric by the LbL selfassembly method. The sheet resistance of the Ag/PEI/Cotton fabric electrode reached 1.6 x 10(-4) Omega.cm. We found that the Ag/PEI/Cotton fabric electrode was more flexible and had better mechanical properties than the Cu metal electrode. The Ag/PEI/Cotton fabric electrode also showed good antibacterial activity, suggesting that it could be safely used as a fabric in contact with human skin. Since the Ag/PEI/Cotton fabric electrode had a low sheet resistance, it could be used as a replacement for the metal electrode traditionally used in composite PENGs. The output voltage and output current of the BT/PVDF-Ag/PEI/Cotton composite PENG were 1.8 V and 0.37 mu A, respectively, and the output voltage was stable after 1500 cycles. The composite PENG prepared with the Ag/PEI/Cotton fabric electrode could sense various types of human motion. Herein, we provide a new method to fabricate a wearable fabric-based electrode, that can replace the conventional metal electrode to prepare composite PENGs. The BT/PVDF-Ag/PEI/Cotton composite PENG has extensive application prospects in motion monitoring and wearable devices.