A transparent, flexible triboelectric nanogenerator for anti-counterfeiting based on photothermal effect

With the rapid development of flexible electronics, materials with a single function can no longer meet the increasingly complex application fields, so it is a challenge to design a wearable electronic device with multifunctionality. Here, a polyacrylamide (PAM)-based composite hydrogel doped with black phosphorus (BP) nanosheets is designed, which has excellent conductivity (0.574 S/m), stretchability (>1,000%), transparency, and photothermal properties. In addition, the composite hydrogel is used as an electrode and encapsulated by structured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) to construct a multifunctional, hydrogel-based triboelectric nanogenerator (Hy-TENG) with a power density of 149.8 mW m−2. In addition, because of the photothermal characteristics of BP, the Hy-TENG could be used as a confidential communications device to realize the decryption of temperature-sensitive patterns by infrared light, thereby completing transmission of real information. We hope that the designed Hy-TENG can promote the development of advanced information security systems and provide a direction for future research.