A flexible triboelectric nanogenerator based on Ecoflex/BaTiO3/carbon spheres for active and passive tactile intelligent sensing systems

With the integration of flexible electronic technology and intelligent sensing technology, self-powered tactile sensors based on the triboelectric effect have made rapid advancements. In this work, Ecoflex was used as the main material for flexible devices, and a charge capture layer with both triboelectric and piezoelectric effects was prepared by doping with tetragonal barium titanate (T-BTO). An electrode with charge capture functionality was created by doping with carbon spheres (CS). Additionally, a layer-by-layer self-assembly process was employed to construct a piezoelectric effect-enhanced integrated triboelectric nanogenerator Ecoflex/CS/T-BTO (CTB-TENG). By polarization treatment, the output voltage and current of the CTB-TENG were enhanced to 532 V and 72 μA. To enhance the tactile sensing capability of the CTB-TENG, a deep learning model based on convolutional neural networks was proposed, achieving an object recognition accuracy of 98.6 %. Based on this, an active tactile sensing system and a passive tactile control system based on CTB-TENG were developed. The active tactile sensing system achieved intelligent sorting of objects, while the passive tactile sensing system enabled detection and control of objects. This lays a solid foundation for the further application of CTB-TENG in the fields of smart factories and smart homes. It also provides broader application prospects for tactile sensors based on the triboelectric effect and contributes to the advancement of flexible electronic technology.