Engineering self-healable and biodegradable ionic polyurethane with highly tribopositive behavior

According to the development of human-oriented technology, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) present great potential as a power source for self-powered sensors and wearable devices. Advanced next-generation TENGs require not only durability and stable production of electrical energy but also the ability to autonomously self-heal after mechanical damage and biodegradability. Here we report a self-healable, biodegradable, and high performance TENG using engineered ionic polyurethane (IPU). We utilized polycaprolactone-based PU to provide biodegradable properties and introduced imidazolium ionic liquids diol (IL) to facilitate self-healing through ion-dipole interaction. Imidazolium ionic liquid diol also improves triboelectric properties and improves capacitance by forming an electric double layer (EDL), contributing to improved output. These results suggest a high-performance TENG design methodology that can be applied to next-generation soft electronic devices.