Recent developments of textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators for smart sports applications

Conventional intelligent sports systems rely heavily on external batteries and electronics, limiting service time and comfort. Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (T-TENGs), featuring lightweight, breathability, flexibility, and self-powered capability, have attracted increasing attention in wearable sports applications. By converting biomotions into electrical energy or monitoring physiological signals without additional energy supply, T-TENGs offer a promising solution for next-generation wearable sports systems. Recent advances include yarn-based and fabric-based devices achieving power densities of 28.48 μW/m and 15 W/m², respectively, and self-powered sensors exhibiting a sensitivity of 8.36 V/kPa at 3 Hz. This review summarizes progress in T-TENGs, focusing on structural design, system integration, and AI empowerment. It covers working principles and structure-performance relationships, and highlights the synergistic benefits of combining AI with self-powered sensors in joint movement, gait analysis, muscle monitoring, and sports performance evaluation. Key challenges and opportunities in materials innovation, user experience, hardware integration, and information extraction are also outlined, underscoring the significant role of AI in advancing intelligent and sustainable wearable athletic applications.