High Toughness, Multi-dynamic Self-Healing Polyurethane for Outstanding Energy Harvesting and Sensing

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 15; no. 50; pp. 58806 - 58814
• Main Authors: Cheng, Bing-Xu, Zhang, Jia-Le, Jiang, Yan, Wang, Shuangfei, Zhao, Hui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 20.12.2023
• Subjects: Applications of Polymer, Composite, and Coating Materials; disulfides; durability; electric generators; electric potential difference; friction; humans; polyurethanes; disulfide bonds; polyurethane; triboelectric nanogenerator; self-healing; metal coordination bonds
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c12384

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are an emerging class of energy harvesting devices with considerable potential across diverse applications, including wearable electronic devices and self-powered sensors. However, sustained contact, friction, and incidental scratches during operation can lead to a deterioration in the electrical output performance of the TENG, thereby reducing its overall service life. To address this issue, we developed a self-healing elastomer by incorporating disulfide bonds and metal coordination bonds into the polyurethane (PU) chain. The resulting elastomer demonstrated exceptional toughness, with a high value of 85 kJ m–3 and an impressive self-healing efficiency of 85.5%. Specifically, the TENG based on that self-healing PU elastomer generated a short circuit current of 12 μA, an open circuit voltage of 120 V, and a transfer charge of 38.5 nC within a 2 cm × 2 cm area, operating in contact-separation mode. With an external resistance of 20 MΩ, the TENG achieved a power density of 2.1 W m–2. Notably, even after self-healing, the electrical output performance of the TENG was maintained at 95% of the undamaged device. Finally, the self-healing TENG was employed to construct a self-powered noncontact sensing system that can be applied to monitor human motion accurately. This research may expand the application prospects of PU materials in future human–computer interaction and self-powered sensing fields.