Saira Bano, Piyush Sahdev, Garima Kumar, Sumit Choudhary, Ranbir Singh
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) is a promising and sustainable solution for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy, as well as utilize for energy harvesting and sensing applications. However, TENG devices inherently suffers from limited electrical conductivity, which limits output current from dielectric triboelectric layers despite their high voltage generation. To address these challenges, this work presents the development of high-performance polyvinyl alcohol/silver nitrate (PVA/AgNO3) conducting gels, engineered to be flexible, stretchable, and employed as an electropositive intermediate dielectric layer embedded within the TENG architecture to facilitate efficient charge generation and transfer. Synthesized PVA/AgNO3conducting gel exhibits improved electrical conductivity, tensile strength, and compressive strength of 32.8 S/m, 0.5 MPa, and 0.6 MPa, respectively. Further, conducting gel was employed to fabricate a triboelectric nanogenerator (CG-TENG), delivering an output voltage of 27.6 V and a current density response up to 0.4 μA/cm2, which is a threefold increment compared to reference conducting gel free-TENG. The CG-TENG efficiently produces a maximum power density of 0.16 mW/cm2across a 1 kΩ load resistor. Additionally, a 2 × 2 self-powered pressure sensor array prototype was fabricated using CG-TENG to demonstrate spatially resolved pressure sensing, where each pixel generated distinct electrical signals under mechanical stimulation. The prototypes successfully demonstrate emergency alert messages on OLED, wirelessly visualize pressure sensing and distribution on the graphical user interface (GUI).