Sustainable bio-waste self-powered wearable triboelectric nanogenerator sensor for human motion monitoring

This study proposes a unique design for a wearable sliding mode triboelectric nanogenerator that can be installed in a human shoe and utilise test motion to generate electricity. The innovative design feature includes of motion modification mechanism that significantly increase relative displacement between bio-waste materials made electrodes of triboelectric nanogenerator. This design feature is important for maximising the charge separation triboelectric effect that ensures a better power output from the device. The electrodes for the sliding mode triboelectric nanogenerator are made of PolyTetraFluoroEthylene film and bio material human hair paste having thickness 0.05 mm each. Experiments are performed with harmonic excitations within the frequency range 0.5–6 Hz. These tests successfully demonstrated the device’s potential to achieve a peak voltage up to 600 mV and a power density of 1.593 mW/m ² . To provide a comprehensive understanding of theory, a mathematical model of the triboelectric nanogenerator was developed using MATLAB. This theoretical study was used to verify the experimental results that confirming the design’s effectiveness and the accuracy of the energy conversion process. Finally, this energy harvester prototype was fitted in a human shoe to test its performance under real-world conditions. The voltage output and corresponding voltage waveforms were systematically investigated across a variety of human motions, including normal walking, fast walking, jumping and stair climbing (up and down). That investigates voltage waveforms obtained with the different human motions.