Flexible and Wearable PDMS-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self-Powered Tactile Sensing

Flexible electronics devices with tactile perception can sense the mechanical property data of the environment and the human body, and they present a huge potential in the human health system. In particular, the introduction of ultra-flexible and self-powered characteristics to tactile sensors can effectively reduce the problems caused by rigid batteries. Herein, we report a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), mainly consisting of an ultra-flexible polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film with micro-pyramid-structure and sputtered aluminum electrodes, which achieves highly conformal contact with skin and the self-powered detection of human body motions. The flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film was selected as spacer layer, which made the sensor work in the contact-separation mode and endowed the perfect coupling of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction. Moreover, the controllable and uniform micro-structure PDMS film was fabricated by using the micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) manufacturing process, bringing a good sensitivity and high output performance to the device. The developed TENG can directly convert mechanical energy into electric energy and light up 110 green Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs). Furthermore, the TENG-based sensor displays good sensitivity (2.54 V/kPa), excellent linearity (R² = 0.99522) and good stability (over 30,000 cycles). By virtue of the compact size, great electrical properties, and great mechanical properties, the developed sensor can be conformally attached to human skin to monitor joint movements, presenting a promising application in wearable tactile devices. We believe that the ultra-flexible and self-powered tactile TENG-based sensor could have tremendous application in wearable electrons.