A noval transparent triboelectric nanogenerator as electronic skin for real-time breath monitoring.

Against the backdrop of advancements in modern multifunctional wearable electronics, there is a growing demand for simple, sustainable, and portable electronic skin (e-skin), posing significant challenges. This study aims to delineate the development of a straightforward, transparent, highly sensitive, and high power-density electronic skin based on a triboelectric nanogenerator(S-TENG), designed for harvesting human body energy and real-time monitoring of the physiological motion status. Our e-skin incorporates thermally treated polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) fiber membranes as the contact layer and a film of silver nanowires as the conductive electrodes. The resulting contact-separation type e-skin exhibits an impressive transparency of 80 %, along with a nice sensitivity value, capable of detecting a light touch from a 0.13 g sponge and demonstrating good working stability and breathability. Leveraging the triboelectric effect, our e-skin generates an open-circuit voltage of 301 V and a short-circuit current of 2.7 µA under an extrinsic force of 8 N over an interaction area of 4 × 4 cm2, achieving a power density up to 306 mW/m2. With its signal processing circuitry, the integrated S-TENG showcases nice energy harvesting and signal transmission capabilities. Accordingly, we contend that S-TENG has potential applications in energy capture and real-time human motion state monitoring. This research is anticipated to blaze a novel and practical trail for self-powered wearable devices and personalized health rehabilitation training regimens.

Self-Rebound Cambered Triboelectric Nanogenerator Array for Self-Powered Sensing in Kinematic Analytics.

In challenging and dangerous equestrian sports, kinematic analysis and injury prevention based on distributed, portable, and real-time sensing technology is particularly important. Here, we report a flexible self-rebound cambered triboelectric nanogenerator that addresses the concerns and shows its applications for self-powered sensing in kinematic analysis. Benefiting from simple and effective design, ordinary materials by means of self-rebound cambered structure evolved into a micro-biomechanical energy harvester with mechanical properties including over 3000 cycles durability and superior resiliency and stability. At a size of 4.52 cm2, it could deliver a power density of 1.25 mW/m2 under an external load resistance of 60 MΩ. A self-powered riding characteristic sensing system has been developed with fast response time of 16 ms, to provide real-time statistics data and fall prediction for both horsemen and coaches, to take traditional equestrian sports to a advanced state. This work not only can promote the development of triboelectric nanogenerators in micro-biomechanical energy harvesting, but also could expand the application range of the self-powered system to intelligent sport monitoring and assisting.

Synergistic Enhanced Thermal Conductivity and Dielectric Constant of Epoxy Composites with Mesoporous Silica Coated Carbon Nanotube and Boron Nitride Nanosheet.

Dielectric materials with high thermal conductivity and outstanding dielectric properties are highly desirable for advanced electronics. However, simultaneous integration of those superior properties for a material remains a daunting challenge. Here, a multifunctional epoxy composite is fulfilled by incorporation of boron nitride nanosheets (BNNSs) and mesoporous silica coated multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs@mSiO2). Owing to the effective establishment of continuous thermal conductive network, the obtained BNNSs/MWCNTs@mSiO2/epoxy composite exhibits a high thermal conductivity of 0.68 W m-1 K-1, which is 187% higher than that of epoxy matrix. In addition, the introducing of mesoporous silica dielectric layer can screen charge movement to shut off leakage current between MWCNTs, which imparts BNNSs/MWCNTs@mSiO2/epoxy composite with high dielectric constant (8.10) and low dielectric loss (<0.01) simultaneously. It is believed that the BNNSs/MWCNTs@mSiO2/epoxy composites with admirable features have potential applications in modern electronics.