A flexible triboelectric nanogenerator based on PDA/MXene/NIPAM hydrogel for mechanical energy harvesting and basketball posture monitoring

Recently, breakthroughs have been made in the research on wearable sports monitoring products, especially regarding stretchable flexible electronic devices. However, there is still considerable room for the development of self-powered sensor materials for sports monitoring. In this work, we utilized polydopamine MXene/N-isopropylacrylamide hydrogel to prepare polydopamine (PDA)/MXene/N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) hydrogel-based triboelectric nanogenerator (PMN-TENG) for biomechanical energy harvesting and basketball posture monitoring. Significantly, PMN-hydrogel can still maintain good conductivity after being exposed to air for more than 40 days. From the results, the open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Isc), and transferred charge (Qsc) of PMN-TENG can reach 16 V, 0.47 µA, and 25 nC, respectively. Further calculations indicate that the maximum power density of PMN-TENG can reach 0.18 mW/m2. For practical demonstration, the PMN-TENG was strategically placed on a basketball player’s elbow and knee joints to obtain the key sports situation of athletes. This research can provide new ideas for the development of new wearable electronic materials.