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Amino-rich graphitic carbon nitride functionalized polyurethane nanomesh as highly tribopositive material for high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators and self-powered respiration monitoring wearables

Amino-rich graphitic carbon nitride functionalized polyurethane nanomesh as highly tribopositive material for high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators and self-powered respiration monitoring wearables

Triboelectric nanogenerators have shown remarkable potential in advanced wearable sensors and high-entropy energy harvesting, with most of them being constrained by the electron-accepting behavior of the materials. However, tribo-positive materials with semiconducting properties and high electron-donating abilities have not been comprehensively explored. In this study, a novel polyurethane@graphitic carbon nitride (PU@g-C3N4) composite nanomesh (NM) was developed and validated as a highly positive triboelectric material for triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and self-powered wearable pressure sensors. PU@g-C3N4 NM exhibits strong electron-donating abilities owing to the abundance of –NH2 and –NH groups, as verified by physical characterizations. The incorporation of semiconductive g-C3N4 into PU significantly enhanced the relative dielectric constant (1.5 times), reduced the dielectric loss, and improved the electron-donating and charge-trapping properties, which are essential for high-performance TENG. The composite nanomesh, paired with Eco-flex, demonstrated excellent output voltage (465 V) and output power density (2.89 W/m2), making it a reliable power source for wearable electronics. Moreover, it showed excellent pressure sensitivity of 0.515 V/kPa in the ultralow-pressure regime of 0.3–1.7 kPa highlighting its applicability as highly reliable and stable self-powered pressure sensor in the skin and cloth-sensitive TENG applications such as wearable human respiratory monitoring and speech-recognizing platforms. This study explores alternative tribomaterials, optimizes performance, and offers guidelines for advancing high-output TENGs and self-powered wearable sensors.

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