Scalable core–spun coating yarn-based triboelectric nanogenerators with hierarchical structure for wearable energy harvesting and sensing via continuous manufacturing

With rapid advancement in wearable electronics, textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (T-TENGs) have attracted great attention for energy harvesting and bio-motion sensing because of their softness, lightweight, and comfort properties. However, the interface bonding between functional materials and textile substrate, and the compatibility with manufacturing still face considerable challenges. Herein, a kind of scalable core–spun coating yarn-based triboelectric nanogenerators (CSCY-TENGs) with a hierarchical architecture is designed and developed via continuous manufacturing which integrates yarn spinning, coating and braiding technologies to achieve fully continuous production. In this method, spinning technology was used to spin a kind of conductive core-spun yarns with silver-plated nylon yarn (SNY) as core and insulating cotton fibers as shell, where SNY serves as electrode and cotton fibers serve as base materials for absorbing/coating with triboelectric materials. Then multiple core-spun yarns coated with nylon and doped polydimethylsiloxane are used as positive and negative triboelectric materials to realize hierarchical CSCY-TENGs by braiding technology. The CSCY-TENGs can be washed and compatible with industrial-scale manufacturing. Besides, it can achieve an output voltage of 174 V, and a peak power density and an average power density of 275 mW/m² and 57 mW/m² respectively. As demonstration, the CSCY-TENG can charge various commercial capacitors and power low-power electronics. It can also be used as an anti-theft alarm carpet and energy harvesting shoes for bio-motion detection and energy harvesting.