In recent times, high-performance wearable electronic devices that can transform mechanical force into electrical energy for biomedical monitoring applications are receiving an increasing amount of attention. In the present study, we focused on a flexible, self-powered and wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on electrospun polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/aromatic hyperbranched polyester of 4th generation (Ar.HBP-G4, 0–40 wt.-% w.r.t. PVDF content) blend nanoweb as tribo-negative layer and melt-blown thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) as tribo-positive layer for energy harvesting and human health monitoring applications. Among the varying Ar.HBP-G4 content used, incorporation of Ar.HBP-G4 (10 wt.-%) in PVDF (P-Ar.HBP-G4-10) showed higher increase in the triboelectric output voltage when compared to pristine PVDF and other Ar.HBP-G4 weight ratios. The optimized P-Ar.HBP-G4-10/TPU based TENG exhibited a peak-to-peak voltage (V_p-p) of 124.4 V under an applied load of 9.8 N and frequency 1 Hz which is superior to many other TENGs reported elsewhere. Higher triboelectric performance of P-Ar.HBP-G4 blend based TENG compared to that of neat PVDF is attributed to the effect of Ar.HBP-G4-10 in enhancing the degree of crystallinity and polar β-crystalline phase content (98.3%) in PVDF. The ability of the TENG to power up portable electronic devices is demonstrated when it is powered for 750 s while connected through a capacitor and a rectifier, and the TENG was able to operate 45 light-emitting diodes directly. Evaluation of the triboelectric output of the TENG device attached to different parts of the human body reveal significantly better output voltage and sensitivity for human health monitoring. The results of this work pave a new way to develop TENG based on P-Ar.HBP-G4 nanowebs for sustainable energy generation and wearable healthcare monitoring systems.

This study aims to find base materials for dry electrode fabrication with high accuracy and without reducing electrode performance for long-term bioelectric potential monitoring after electroless silver plating. Most applications of dry electrodes that have been developed in the past few decades are restricted by low accuracy compared to commercial Ag/AgCl gel electrodes, as in our previous study of PVDF-based dry electrodes. In a recent study, however, nanoweb-based chlorinated polyisoprene (CPI) and poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) rubber were selected as promising candidates due to their excellent elastic properties, as well as their nanofibril nature, which may improve electrode durability and skin contact. The electroless silver plating technique was employed to coat the nanofiber web with silver, and silver nanoweb(AgNW)-based dry electrodes were fabricated. The key electrode properties (contact impedance, step response, and noise characteristics) for AgNW dry electrodes were investigated thoroughly using agar phantoms. The dry electrodes were subsequently tested on human subjects to establish their realistic performance in terms of ECG, EMG monitoring, and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) measurements. The experimental results demonstrated that the AgNW dry electrodes, particularly the SBS-AgNW dry electrodes, performed similarly to commercial Ag/AgCl gel electrodes and were outperformed in terms of long-term stability.