High-efficiency super-elastic liquid metal based triboelectric fibers and textiles

Fibers that harvest mechanical energy via the triboelectric effect are excellent candidates aspower sources for wearable electronics and functional textiles. Thus far however, their fab-rication remains complex, and exhibited performances are below the state-of-the-art of 2Dplanar configurations, making them impractical. Here, we demonstrate the scalable fabrica-tion of micro-structured stretchable triboelectricfibers with efficiencies on par with planarsystems. We use the thermal drawing process to fabricate advanced elastomerfibers thatcombine a micro-textured surface with the integration of several liquid metal electrodes. Suchfibers exhibit high electrical outputs regardless of repeated large deformations, and cansustain strains up to 560%. They can also be woven into deformable machine-washabletextiles with high electrical outputs up to 490 V, 175 nC. In addition to energy harvesting, wedemonstrate self-powered breathing monitoring and gesture sensing capabilities, making thistriboelectricfiber platform an exciting avenue for multi-functional wearable systems andsmart textiles.