Fabric-based triboelectric nanogenerators with ultrasonic spray coated graphene electrodes

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are widely studied as a source to power wearable electronics. Herein we developed a truly wearable, fabric-based TENG device, with ultrasonic spray-coated graphene nanoplatelets as the electrode on a polyester fabric substrate and PDMS polymer as the dielectric layer on one-half of the TENG. This part is tested against a variety of materials with a copper electrode and a triboseries is generated based on these tested materials. The PDMS side against nylon fabric is able to produce around 397 V and 6.8 μA at 1 Hz frequency without using any output amplifying components. They are further studied in detail to understand the effect of different parameters such as contact-separation frequency, contact force, separation distance, contact area and chemical modification of tribolayer on the TENG operation. The durability and stability of the TENG devices are studied and their potential to be integrated to self-powered smart textiles as power sources are demonstrated.