Mesoporous Pores as Effective Dielectrics for Enhancing Triboelectric Nanogenerator Performance

Abstract

Mechanical energy is one of the most ubiquitous energies in our surroundings, which can be converted into electricity at anytime and anywhere. Since the first invention of the TENG in 2012, TENGs have been proven as a cost effective, simple, and robust technique for energy harvesting. In the triboelectric process, energy conversion is achieved by a periodic physical contact between two materials that differ in the polarity of triboelectricity, which yields surface charge transfer. A key approach to improve the electrical output performance aspect is to increase the triboelectric surface charge density through material modification and surface functionalization. Here, we report highly compressible mesoporus pores as effective dieelectrics for enhancing triboelectric nanogenerator performance. The nanogenerator showed very large output voltage and current of up to 130 V and 0.10 mAcm-2. Au nanoparticles (NPs) were also introduced into the pores by casting a mixture of PDMS solution and DI water with Au NPs. The TENG shows the instantaneous power of 13 mW, under cycled compressive force, giving over 5-fold power enhancement, compared with the FTENG. Additionally, it was employed in applications for self-powered shape mapping sensor, foot-step driven large-scale AMTENG, and an integrated circuit with a capacitor.