Transparent, stretchable, temperature-stable and self-healing ionogel-based triboelectric nanogenerator for biomechanical energy collection

A flexible and stable power supply is essential to the rapid development of wearable electronic devices. In this work, a transparent, flexible, temperature-stable and ionogel electrode-based self-healing triboelectric nanogenerator (IS-TENG) was developed. The ionogel with excellent stretchability (1,012%), high ionic conductivity (0.3 S·m−1) and high-temperature stability (temperature range of −77 to 250 °C) was used as the electrode of the IS-TENG. The IS-TENG exhibited excellent transparency (92.1%) and stability. The output performance did not decrease when placed in a 60 °C oven for 48 h. In addition, the IS-TENG behaved like a stable output in the range of −20 to 60 °C. More importantly, the IS-TENG could also achieve self-healing of electrical performance at temperatures between −20 and 60 °C and its output can be restored to its original state after healing. When the single-electrode IS-TENG with an area of 3 cm × 3 cm was conducted under the working frequency of 1.5 Hz, the output values for open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, short-circuit transferred charge, and maximum peak power density were 189 V, 6.2 µA, 57 nC, and 2.17 W·m−2, respectively. The IS-TENG enables to harvest biomechanical energy, and drive electronic devices. Furthermore, the application of IS-TENGs as self-driven sensors for detecting human behavior was also demonstrated, showing good application prospects in the field of wearable power technology and self-driven sensing.