Wearable Electricity Generators Fabricated Utilizing Transparent Electronic Textiles Based on Polyester/Ag Nanowires/Graphene Core–Shell Nanocomposites

The technological realization of
wearable triboelectric generators
is attractive because of their promising applications in wearable
self-powered intelligent systems. However, the low electrical conductivity,
the low electrical stability, and the low compatibility of current
electronic textiles (e-textiles) and clothing restrict the comfortable
and aesthetic integration of wearable generators into human clothing.
Here, we present high-performance, transparent, smart e-textiles that
employ commercial textiles coated with silver nanowire/graphene sheets
fabricated by using a scalable, environmentally friendly, full-solution
process. The smart e-textiles show superb and stable conduction of
below 20 Ω/square as well as excellent flexibility, stretchability,
foldability, and washability. In addition, wearable electricity-generating
textiles, in which the e-textiles act as electrodes as well as wearable
substrates, are presented. Because of the high compatibility of smart
e-textiles and clothing, the electricity-generating textiles can be
easily integrated into a glove to harvest the mechanical energy induced
by the motion of the fingers. The effective output power generated
by a single generator due to that motion reached as high as 7 nW/cm2. The successful demonstration of the electricity-generating
glove suggests a promising future for polyester/Ag nanowire/graphene
core–shell nanocomposite-based smart e-textiles for real wearable
electronic systems and self-powered clothing.