Highly stretchable kirigami-patterned nanofiber-based nanogenerators for harvesting human motion energy to power wearable electronics

Abstract

Wearable electronics are advancing toward miniaturization and flexibility. However, traditional energy supply methods have largely hindered their development. An effective solution to this problem is to convert human mechanical energy into electricity to power wearable electronic devices. Therefore, it is greatly attractive to design flexible, foldable and even stretchable energy harvesting devices. Herein, we used the electrospinning and kirigami approach to develop a type of highly stretchable kirigami-patterned nanofiber-based triboelectric nanogenerator (K-TENG). Due to its innovative structural design, the K-TENG can achieve a tensile strain of 220 %, independent of the tensile properties of the material itself. When a person swings the arms, the K-TENG fixed to the clothing can convert mechanical energy from human movement into electrical energy. The produced electricity can directly drive 50 LED lights and a digital watch, or be stored in a lithium battery to charge the smartwatch and smart phone respectively. This work employs a new method to fabricate stretchable TENG and demonstrates its promising applications in wearable power technology.