Biodegradable, transparent, and antibacterial alginate-based triboelectric nanogenerator for energy harvesting and tactile sensing

•A biodegradable, transparent, and antibacterial sodium alginate-based triboelectric nanogenerator is proposed.•A vacuum filtration method was used for preparing patterned transparent conductive sodium alginate/AgNWs electrodes.•Sodium alginate/glycerol substrate have good adhesion to realize the complete transfer of the AgNWs pattern.•The triboelectric nanogenerator has been used as a self-powered tactile sensor. The utilization of natural biomaterials in the construction of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) has significant implications for the advancement of sustainable self-powered devices. Sodium alginate (SA), an eco-friendly and biodegradable triboelectric material with excellent transparency, is considered an ideal material for wearable TENGs. In this work, we report a biodegradable, transparent, and antibacterial SA-based TENG for mechanical energy harvesting and self-powered tactile sensing. The addition of glycerol, an environment-friendly additive, can enhance flexibility and adhesiveness of the SA, which resulted in well-transferred AgNWs/SA electrodes with high transparency and conductivity. The major parameters that affect the output performance of the fabricated TENG are investigated, including the frequency, thickness and area of the triboelectric layers. The output voltage, transferred charge, and peak power of the TENG could reach up to 53 V, 18 nC, and 4 μW, respectively, which is sufficient to power small electronic devices. In addition, the fabricated TENG device also shows excellent antibacterial and biodegradable capabilities. Finally, the TENG is demonstrated to be an effective self-powered tactile sensor for pressure mapping, human movement monitoring, and wearable human–machine interfacing. This work provides a new strategy to design flexible transparent TENGs with biodegradable SA and paves the way for developing next-generation self-powered transient electronics.