Flexible triboelectric nanogenerator based on a super-stretchable and self-healable hydrogel as the electrode

Stretchable electronic devices nowadays become more and more necessary for our daily lives, and most of the present electronic devices are based on inorganic materials. These obtained electronic devices can hardly bear various deformations in practical application because of the poor flexibility and stretchability of these conventional inorganic materials. However, the biggest challenge for producing flexible and stretchable electronic devices is that each component of the device should endure deformations, and in the meantime, ensure the whole electronic devices not only with excellent flexibility and stretchability but also maintain excellent electric output performances even under the situation of being deformed. In this work, a kind of super-stretchable, self-healable, and conductive hydrogel which could bear about sixty times stretching compared with its original state (~ 6000 %) is prepared; it could be self-healed in about 10 min after been cut. More importantly, the hydrogel can greatly enhance the output performances of the TENG comparing with the conventional copper foil as the electrode. Furthermore, when used as the electrode of flexible TENGs, relatively stable and excellent electric output performances could be maintained even been seriously stretched. Consequently, this study provides an ideal candidate for electrode material of electric devices.