Human Body Electrode Enabled Direct Current Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Self‐Powered Wireless Human Motion and Environment Monitoring

Abstract

Abstract Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a promising technology, which can convert biokinetic energy into electricity and be utilized as self‐powered sensors and power sources for wearable electronics. The existing designs of conventional TENGs require complex fabrication processes and device structures, and they need to be attached on human body for wearable application, which is uncomfortable and may lead to malfunction under intense body moment. Here, a direct current TENG is proposed by utilizing natural human body, basketball, shoes, and ground floor. A unidirectional peak voltage and current output up to 700 V and 23 µA can be generated when a player plays a basketball, which can lighten up an array of 240 LEDs, and charge a 100 µF capacitor to 3.2 V in 1 min. The output of TENG is utilized to identify different movements of a basketball player using machine learning algorithm with an accuracy up to 96.7%. Moreover, the human body enabled direct current TENG (HBDC‐TENG) is used as a self‐powered sensor and an energy harvester for a wireless sensing system, which can collect human motion and environmental information, and transmit them wirelessly. The HBDC‐TENG has a great significance for self‐powered wearable electronics, providing a viable solution for human motion status and ambient environment monitoring.

Keywords

• direct current
• self‐powered
• TENG
• wearable electronics
• wireless sensing