Full-fiber triboelectric nanogenerators with knitted origami structures for high impact resistance intelligent protection fabric†

Next-generation fabrics with excellent protection and intelligent sensing abilities will be beneficial to protect the elderly from accidents, as the ageing population will be a global challenge in the next decade. However, for widely used techniques such as fabric coating and multi-layer compositing, maintaining a balance between comfortability, stable anti-impact protection, and multi-function such as intelligent monitoring remains elusive. Herein, a full-fiber composite yarn with triboelectric ability was developed, which was then woven into an origami-structured knitted fabric (OSKF). Due to the coaxial torsional structure, the composite yarn exhibited outstanding fracture strength (219.18 MPa). The full-fiber multi-scale structure design endowed the OSKF with significantly improved energy absorption capacity (absorbing > 85% of the applied force) and the desired self-powered sensing performance without affecting the comfortability. The OSKF also had a unique ability to respond to various hazardous situations, such as external mechanical force stimuli, cutting by a sharp object, and accidental falls. This work sheds light on a new path toward the design of next-generation smart protection wearables based on knitted fabric structure design-based full-fiber materials.