A flexible triboelectric nanogenerator based on a super-stretchable and self-healable hydrogel as the electrode

Abstract

Stretchable electronic devices nowadays have become more and more necessary in our daily lives, and most of the present electronic devices are based on inorganic materials. The obtained electronic devices can hardly bear various deformations in practical applications because of the poor flexibility and stretchability of these conventional inorganic materials. However, the biggest challenge for producing flexible and stretchable electronic devices is that each component of the device should endure deformations, and in the meantime, ensure that the whole electronic devices not only have excellent flexibility and stretchability, but also maintain excellent electrical output performances even under the situation of being deformed. In this work, a kind of super-stretchable, self-healable, and conductive hydrogel which could bear about sixty times stretching compared with its original state (∼ 6000%) is prepared; it could self-heal in about 10 min after being cut. More importantly, the hydrogel can greatly enhance the output performances of the TENG compared with the conventional copper foil as the electrode. Furthermore, when used as the electrode in flexible TENGs, relatively stable and excellent electrical output performances could be maintained even after being seriously stretched. Consequently, this study provides an ideal candidate for the electrode material of electric devices.