A Tough Polyurethane with Self-Healing Ability for Wearable Triboelectric Nanogenerator Devices

Abstract

Lack of a convenient and sustainable power supply and device failure after material damage are important factors limiting the development of traditional wearable sensors. In this study, a self-healing triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was designed and prepared for motion sensing and energy harvesting. Hydrogen bonds and disulfide bonds were introduced into a polyurethane (PU) chain segment to provide it with self-healing ability. Then, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were added to PU to confer electrical conductivity to the composite film. The conductive composite film is sandwiched between the original PU films as an electrode in a sandwich structure, and the three-layer films were tightly bonded by hydrogen bonds and disulfide bonds using a simple hot-pressing method. The output performance of the prepared TENG with a contact area of 4 cm² can reach 89.4 V and 96 μW/cm² because of the triboelectric effect. The TENG can still retain 95.6% of its electrical output performance after being broken and then healed. In this regard, TENG can be applied for harvesting human motion energy and monitoring human motion, which shows huge application potential in wearable sensing devices.