Energy from Waste: Triboelectric Nanogenerators from Fully Fabric Materials for Smart Textiles. An Introductory Activity for Fine Arts and Design Students

Smart textile fabrics have arisen as an emerging technology,
aiming
to integrate advanced functionalities into conventional fabrics. While
they are highly valuable in fashion and design, a significant knowledge
gap exists between the underlying physical and chemical principles
of smart textiles and fashion designers, which might be unfamiliar
with those concepts closely related to electronics, physics, engineering,
chemistry, or material science. In this article, we present a simple
pedagogical experiment as an introduction to smart textiles, focusing
on triboelectrification. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can
transform mechanical energy into electricity via friction or contact
between two different layers such as two different fabrics. The activity
described here involves assembling TENGs using various textile fabrics,
from common fabrics, such as cotton, to recycled fabrics, such as
polypropylene from face masks. By carefully selecting textile pairs
according to the triboelectric series (a semiempirical approach),
the output voltage can be maximized, which is sufficient to power
a series of LED lights or even charge a small load, such as a capacitor.
This straightforward experiment helps introduce students and researchers
from various disciplines to the basic concepts and terminology of
TENGs, enabling them to create a micro power generator using commonly
available fabrics.