Dielectric Polarization‐Driven Energy Amplification in 2D Nanostructure‐Embedded PVC Gel TENGs for Tribo‐Resistive Sensing Applications

Plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) gels are prototypical soft ionic polymers that combine strongly negative charge polarity with inherently high permittivity; however, their mobile ions impose substantial dielectric loss and leakage currents, which limit the output of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Here, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets are embedded as 2D capacitive layers in a PVC gel, where they immobilize excess ions and add interfacial polarization, giving a dielectric constant of 32 at 1 kHz while lowering the dissipation factor (tan δ) by 65% relative to the pristine gel. The optimized GO-doped gel TENG delivers 282 V, 20.1 µA, and 612 µW/cm^2-approximately 2.3, 2.0, and 2.5 times the values of the pristine PVC gel, respectively. A single GO-PVC gel layer simultaneously functions as both dielectric and electrode, powering a self-powered tribo-resistive sensor that pinpoints pressures up to 800 kPa over a 5 × 5 virtual grid, with a spatial resolution of ≈ 1.8 mm and pressure sensitivities of 194 mV/kPa (0-200 kPa) and 25 mV/kPa (200-800 kPa). By suppressing ion-driven loss while amplifying polarization, this 2D capacitive-layer strategy is transferable to other ionic-gel systems-including ionic-liquid gels and ionomers-charting a versatile route toward high-output soft TENGs for energy-autonomous wearables and electronic skin.