Rapid and sustainable fabrication of flexible triboelectric nanogenerators via electrochemical replication and transfer

Abstract

The rapid development of the Internet of Things and smart wearables seeks lightweight and battery-free technology that can power a wide variety of sensor nodes. Flexible triboelectric nanogenerators (f-TENGs) have garnered pronounced interest due to their versatile and efficient conversion of low-frequency mechanical motions into electricity, which can be directly applied for self-powered, battery-free electronics. While by 2035 the demand for small electronic devices may exceed a trillion pieces, the fabrication of f-TENGs nowadays is low-efficient and costly and cannot sustain the future’s green-manufacturing requirement. Herein, we report a rapid and sustainable fabrication process that produces f-TENG with high-resolution patterns and long-lasting durability that fit the needs of a wide variety of flexible electronic applications. Via an electrochemical replication and transfer (ERT) approach, we fabricate submicron-structured f-TENG electrodes at a high throughput (10 p·h-1) and a very low cost (1 $·p-1). The life-cycle assessment (LCA) analysis shows that the carbon emission of a single piece of f-TENG fabricated by the ERT-based approach is 21 kg·CO2-eq, the lowest among the reported results. We illustrate the versatility of this sustainable fabrication for a wide range of f-TENG, such as self-powered optics and on-skin sensor arrays.