Transforming Medical Plastic Waste into High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Sustainable Energy, Health Monitoring, and Sensing Applications

This paper discusses the environmentalproblems posed by medicalplastic waste produced in healthcare facilities and explores a suitableway to reutilize the waste through triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)device technology. Remarkably, the study investigates the potentialof medical waste saline bottles to create energy-harvesting, health-monitoringdevices and tactile, humidity-sensing applications. Saline bottlesheets are used as triboelectric material to fabricate a TENG in verticalcontact separation (VCS) and single electrode (SE) modes. The VCS-TENGproduced a power density of 8.78 W/m(2) and could power variousdevices, including 420 red LEDs and portable electronic devices. Sleepmonitoring experiments were performed by using an implanted TENG insidethe pillow. The SE mode of TENG produced a power density of 1.46 W/m(2) and was demonstrated for tactile sensing applications. Thepresent work suggested using medical waste to make health monitoring,tactile sensing, humidity sensing, and energy-harvesting devices andpossible applications in touch sensors for various security applications,human-machine interfaces, and IoTs. The proposed idea of usingmedical waste for TENG fabrication can be further extended to othernontoxic waste plastic generated in the medical field. Transforming medical plastic waste into sustainable energyand innovative applications using triboelectric nanogenerator technology.