Sustainable Solutions for Oral Health Monitoring: Biowaste-Derived Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

Oral healthcare monitoring is a vital aspect of identifying and addressing oral dental problems including tooth decay, gum pain, and oral cancer. Day by day, healthcare facilities and regular checkups are becoming more costly and time-consuming. In this context, consumers are moving toward advanced technology, such as bite sensors, to obtain regular data about their occlusal chewing patterns and strength. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) can potentially eliminate the need for a battery by simply converting abundant vibrations from nature or human motion into electrical energy. In this work, biomaterials are obtained from biowastes such as cellulose from wood waste, chitosan from crab shells, and gelatin from fish scales. All wastes are biodegradable, and our work aims at sustainability and waste hierarchy. The single electrode mode-based TENG was designed and fabricated using biodegradable poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)−biomaterial composites, rice paper as a substrate, and edible silver leaf as an electrode. The highest electrical output was obtained for PVA/ chitosan 10 wt % composite-based TENG (PC10) of about 20 V, 200 nA, and 12 nC. The biomechanical energy harvesting was measured, and powering of LED was demonstrated using a PC10 TENG device. A biocompatible bite sensor based on the TENG was used to measure the biting force of a dummy teeth model to demonstrate its potential use in dental health applications. It indicates the promising future value of disposable oral medication devices without any invasive surgery or injection.

Nitrogen and Sulfur Rich Covalent Organic Framework‐Chitosan Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Disposable Urination Evaluation Tool

“…[1][2][3][4][5] Due to their autonomous power supply, TENGs are capable of operating as self-powered systems, replacing the use of conventional batteries in low power consumption health monitoring sensor devices. [6][7][8][9][10] In addition, the integration of telemedicine, telehealth, and artificial intelligence (AI) with TENGs has further advanced remote healthcare monitoring and diagnostic applications. [11][12][13] From a biomedical point of view, the need for biocompatibility is unquestionable; however, the hygiene of the product becomes indispensable when dealing with the patient's body fluids.…”

Innovative triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) design utilizing a stress ball for energy harvesting, wellness, and safety applications

“…It works through the triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction and has potential applications in harvesting mechanical [4,5], wind [6], tidal [7], and rainwater energy [8]. TENG technology is used in various fields, such as self-powered electronic devices, wearable electronics [9,10], self-powered sensors [11][12][13], health monitoring [14,15], and human-machine interaction [16]. Compared to conventional energy sources such as solar, hydro, thermal, wind energy sources, and fossil fuels, TENG is a green energy source that does not harm the environment and can produce high power output within low frequencies.…”

A Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Bamboo Leaf for Biomechanical Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Touch Sensing

“…Searching novel triboelectric materials without additional processing has become a new research idea for pushing forward the development of TENGs. From previous work [34][35][36][37][38], plant materials such as lotus leaves, petals, and tea leaves can be utilized in TENG device fabrication. TENG devices based on plant materials have the advantages of being environmentally friendly, low carbon, low pollution, and low cost.…”