Hybrid PDMS-TiO2-stainless steel textiles for triboelectric nanogenerators

Electrophoretic deposition is employed to deposit flower-like TiO 2 (F-TiO 2 ) particles onto stainless steel textiles to obtain a Fe@F-TiO 2 /PDMS hybrid textile as the negative tribo-material. The electrophoresis process enables adjustable deposit amounts and three-dimensional and uniform deposits of flower TiO 2 . The textile triboelectric nanogenerators (tTENGs) fabricated from the Fe@F-TiO 2 /PDMS hybrid textile working in conjunction with cotton and silk exhibit excellent performances. The tTENG generates a voltage of 120 V, a current of 25 μA and an output power of 0.85 W m −2 with the cotton and 110 V, 30 μA and 1.05 W m −2 with the silk. The flower-like TiO 2 is significant for the high performance of the tTENG, being attributed to the tailored surface and improved permittivity. Wearable tTENGs exhibit good durability after 8,000 cycles and power 58 light emitting diodes. By utilizing the worn tTENG, real-time biomechanical energy harvesting is realized; furthermore, a wireless communication via infrared rays is achieved, confirmed by the successfully receiving of the wireless signal and lighting up of the indicator LED. This work demonstrates high-performance hybrid textiles prepared by electrophoretic deposition and tTENGs for applications in wearable real-time energy harvesters and wireless communication units.