Controlling the triboelectric charges on cellulose-based fabric triboelectric nanogenerator with the inorganic dyes

Abstract

Nowadays, the application of wearable and portable electronic industries for electronic textiles (E-textiles) has seen unprecedented growth with rising new functionalities. However, the electronic components of E-textiles need appropriate energy to work. The most mechanical energy harvesting devices, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) that provide the highest electrical efficiency that have been widely researched and documented. In this work, textile-based TENG was fabricated using four different cellulose fabrics (cotton, linen, rayon, and Tencel) as the primary friction material and modified its functional group with inorganic dyes. Three types of dyes included reactive, direct, and basic dyes are studied. All functional groups of cellulose-based fabric and dyes are identified. Fabric morphologies, fabric properties, and the effect of the functional group of dyes on the electrical output are studied. The results showed that all fabrics contained hydroxyl group from cellulose structure. All inorganic dyes contained an amine group that could react with the fabric to generate different electrical outputs after dyeing. Moreover, all dyed cellulose-based fabric showed higher electrical output than pristine cellulose-based fabric. The findings of this research could be applied to various wearable sensors in the textile-TENG and textile industries in the future.

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