A humidity-resistant, stretchable and wearable textile-based triboelectric nanogenerator for mechanical energy harvesting and multifunctional self-powered haptic sensing

[Display omitted] •A novel method is proposed to develop a humidity-resistant and flexible t-TENG.•The resulted PFL and WFCF possess great superhydrophobicity and stretchability.•The PFL@WFCF-TENG showed a stable output under a high relative humidity of 80%.•PFL@WFCF-TENG can provide a maximum output power density of 631.5 mW m−2.•The PFL@WFCF-TENG can be utilized for energy harvesting and wearable HMI. Textile-based triboelectric nanogenerators (t-TENGs) have attracted extensive attention in wearable power source and movement monitoring. However, the electrical output performance and environmental adaptability of t-TENGs in single-electrode mode are still unsatisfactory, which significantly limits their applications. This limitation is especially more pronounced in humid environments. In the present study, a humidity-resistant and stretchable single-electrode t-TENG (abbreviated as PFL@WFCF-TENG) consisting of the porous flexible layer (PFL) and waterproof flexible conductive fabric (WFCF) has been designed to improve the output performance. Considering the three-dimensional structure and excellent superhydrophobicity of PFL and superior conductivity of WFCF, the resultant PFL@WFCF-TENG (2 × 4 cm2 area) has high outputs (~135 V, ~7.5 μA, 26 μC/m2, 631.5 mW/m2) and favorable humidity-resistant (80% RH). Based on these excellent features, the proposed PFL@WFCF-TENG is expected to be applied for intelligent alarming, haptic sensing, and energy harvesting. Moreover, combined with the microelectronic module, a portable and wearable self-powered haptic controller based on the PFL@WFCF-TENG has been designed for various human–machine interface (HMI) scenarios, such as controlling of the lamp, electronic badge, computer application, and humidifier. The PFL@WFCF-TENG proposed in this study not only provides a feasible solution for developing wearable electronic devices with high electrical output even in high-humidity environments but also shows promising applications in a variety of areas, including wearable power supply, portable computer peripherals, intelligent robots and security systems.