As the world marches into the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), a variety of wearable bioelectronics is on the cusp of a revolution. However, the fast developed emerging field is limited due to the shortage of widespread, wearable, and sustainable energy supply. Although triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) promotes the development, the efficiency is still a challenge for further applications. Some existing trials for boosting output, such as surface physical modification, surface chemical modification, and ceramic particles doping, can’t be used for wearable electronics widely and lastingly, because of their drawbacks.

Figure 1. Active carbon doped PVDF for high relative permittivity.

To address this issue, Weiqing Yang’s group from school of materials science and engineering reported a new approach for output enhancement by doping active carbon (AC) with high specific area in Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF). This method can manipulate the relative permittivity of triboelectric materials to improve output of TENG. TENG based on AC doped PVDF was tested to obtain an enhancement in power by 9.8 times. What’s more, the tremendous performance shows great result in energy harvesting and human motion detection. This work “Manipulating Relative Permittivity for High-Performance Wearable Triboelectric Nanogenerators” was published in Nano letters (IF: 11.238), an undisputed top journal in the field of nano materials. And it was selected as journal cover. This work was strongly supported by NSFC and school of materials science and engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University.

（Paper link：http://www.polymer.cn/UploadFile/research/202009151438075439.pdf）

Figure 2. The application as a wearable TENG and fabrication of PVDF film with dielectric enhancement

Figure 3. Dielectric enhanced TENG for energy harvesting and human motion detection

Group introduction：

YANG Weiqing, professor / doctoral supervisor of School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, member of the 12th CPPCC of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Outstanding Youth, Sichuan University Master and Doctor Degrees in 2007 and 2011, 2011-2014 He worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States. In April 2014, he was introduced to the professor tutor of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Southwest Jiaotong University. In recent years, SCI has been published in internationally renowned publications such as Adv. Mater. (IF: 27.398), ACS Nano (IF: 14.588), Nano Lett. (IF: 11.238), Adv. Funct. Mater. (IF: 16.836) There are more than 160 papers in total, including 40 papers with an impact factor greater than 10, 11 papers with high ESI citations, and more than 5600 citations (Google Scholar). Hosted a number of provincial and ministerial projects such as the National Natural Science Foundation, the Sichuan Provincial Outstanding Youth Fund project, and the Ministry of Education's start-up fund project for returning overseas students, and served as an expert in the evaluation of major R & D program projects of the Ministry of evaluation expert of National Science and Technology Award. Applied for 40 patents (more than 18 authorized). The work done was featured in nearly 20 media outlets such as the National Natural Science Foundation (NSF), Newscientist, CCTV and other well-known websites in the United States, and was received by French Reuters, China Science Network, China Energy Storage Network, China Network, Xinhua Network, People's Network , Phoenix Network and other domestic and foreign media attention. It is also the first time that Newscientists (ranked first in the world of technology media, see Baidu) report on the scientific research work of Southwest Jiaotong University. Related scientific research achievements were highly appraised by Vice Premier Liu Yandong of the State Council, Academician Bai Chunli of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academician He Yan of the Beijing Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at the Beijing Science and Technology Exhibition and Zhongguancun Science and Technology Exhibition.

Group homepage：https://faculty.swjtu.edu.cn/yangweiqing/en/index.htm