Healable and shape-memory dual functional polymers for reliable and multipurpose mechanical energy harvesting devices

Abstract

Developing novel triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) with improved reliability and multiple functions is realistically significant for their practical application. The incorporation of smart polymers into TENGs is an inspiring strategy, but the relevant work is rarely reported. Herein, we design and synthesize a healable and shape-memory dual-functional polymer (HSP) with remarkably improved mechanical properties and stimuli responses, and further integrate it with TENGs to develop an HSP based TENG (HSP-TENG) with superior reliability and versatility. The HSP-TENG shows excellent robustness and healability in electric output for better resisting mechanical damage, and both Isc and Voc of the healed device can recover to the initial value without obvious change. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the shape-memory ability of the HSP-TENG, the device can be used not only as a smart collective insole for flatfoot treatment and gait analysis, but also as a self-powered fire alarm and escape indicator system attributed to its thermal responsive properties. This study paves the way for developing reliable and multipurpose power generation devices and self-powered sensors enabled by smart polymers.