A smart mechanical-energy harvesting and self-heating textile device for photo-thermal energy utilization

A smart textile that could harvest mechanical-energy for photo-thermal energy utilization facilitates the development of a flexible self-heating wearable device. This study presents novel triboelectric materials with a dynamic-bond-cross linking azobenzene-based polymer (PAzo-M) with diverse metal ions. The flexible nylon fabric coated with PAzo-M (NF@PAzo-M) serves as a friction layer of the photothermal triboelectric nanogenerator (PT-TENG) to harvest human mechanical energy. The prepared PT-TENG could exhibit a maximum open circuit voltage of up to 188.8 V with excellent electron loss capability because of its minimum vertical electron affinity of internal ion. And it can harvest mechanical energy from human motion (0.5-1 Hz) to drive the self-powering irradiation of ultraviolet light or visible light, leading to the reversible isomerization of NF@PAzo-M. The NF@PAzo-M textile cyclically utilizes photo thermal energy for self-heating. These results suggest new opportunities to harvest human mechanical energy for self-powering multifunctional wearable devices for functions.