Research progress and prospects of triboelectric nanogenerator for human motion monitoring

Recent studies have identified that the development of sensors and Internet makes portable electronics change with each passing day. In the field of human motion monitoring, traditional electronics often rely on external power sources, which limit comfort, flexibility, and portability. The triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have demonstrated their ability to harvest energy and power self-sensing technologies that have overcome the aforementioned limitations. This paper outlines the material selection and manufacturing methods of TENGs and aims at introducing their working mechanism, reviewing the advancements in wearable sensors based on TENGs in human motion monitoring. TENG wearable sensors have shown good applicability in pressure acceleration and deformation sensing. Most TENG materials come from synthetic material, electrospinning, hydrogel, and natural material. Research on the application of human motion monitoring has shown that TENG sensors made of different types of materials have their own advantages and disadvantages. Among them, sensors made from natural materials are more suitable for the field of motion monitoring in terms of the wide range of material sources, low cost, and monitoring performance. Although TENG technology has achieved good results in the application of human motion monitoring, there are still five issues worth paying attention to in future research: (1) expanding the source of materials, (2) optimizing the structural design of TENG, (3) meeting the demands of human motion monitoring, (4) taking biocompatibility as the development direction, and (5) safety and sustainability.