In this paper, a hybrid triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been developed for simultaneously harvesting the electrostatic energy and mechanical impact energy from water wave. It is comprised of two parts: an interfacial electrification enabled TENG (IE-TENG) and an impact-TENG. The IE-TENG, composed of a fluorinated ethylene propylene thin film and an array of electrodes underneath, is used to harvest electrostatic energy arising from the water-solid interface. The impact-TENG, constructed with nanostructured polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) thin films and elastic wavy electrodes, is used to scavenge the mechanical impact energy from water wave. Under water waves propagating at a speed of 0.5 m/s, the short-circuit current of the IE-TENG and impact-TENG can reach 5.1µA and 4.3µA, respectively, which is able to drive nearly 50 LEDs simultaneously. Considering that natural water bodies may contain minerals and salt, the influence of NaCl concentration on the electric output of device has been investigated. Moreover, the hybrid TENG was developed as a selfpowered distress signals emitter that may be used for life saving in water landing or swimming in evening. Considering the scalability of this technology, this work demonstrates the great potential of TENG in areas of hydropower harvesting, environmental monitoring and maritime search and rescue.

has been a challenge. [5,6] To enhance the absorption and photoresponse of graphene devices, researchers provide a series of strategies to interface graphene with light-absorbing semiconductors. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] Early experimental studies on hybrid devices mainly focus on using one semiconductor layer, including colloidal quantum dots, [7,8] perov skites, [9] organic polymers, [10] single crystals, [16] 2D materials, [17] silicon, and other traditional materials. [11] More recently, improvement of device performance has been made by introducing PN junction bilayer absorbing layer. Incorporating graphene with a perovskite/ organic heterojunction or organic PN junction [14,15] is reported to improve both the photo responsivity and bandwidth. However, the limited narrow spectral range of light-absorbing layer causes ultrahigh photoconductive gain but at the same time sacrifices the detection spectral range. [18] In addition, a number of chemical approaches have been reported to synthesize the conjugated polymers/small molecules (typically with a bandgap of less than 1.6 eV) with appropriate energy gap and desirable photoelectric properties, but the device performance is still restricted. [19] So far the spectral range of graphene-based high gain photodetection is limited to typically 400-700 nm. [9,10,14,15,20,21] Herein, we explore a broadband (405-1550 nm) graphene/ organic semiconductor heterojunction phototransistors with bi-directional photoresponse (both positive and negative photocurrents) for the first time. Instead of broadening the absorption range of the semiconductor layer, our devices exploit ultrasensitive photoresponse at visible region, and the inverse photoresponse at near-infrared region without the need for cryogenics or adjusting gate voltage. Taking organic small molecule C 60 /pentacene heterojunction as the light-absorption layer, we achieve a highest responsivity of 9127 A W −1 , response time down to 275 µs, and external quantum efficiency up to 11.5% in visible regime and over 1800 A W −1 (0.063%) in near-infrared regime. Compared with previous work, our phototransistors not only have large built-in electric field at the C 60 /pentacene interface for high quantum efficiency, but also maintain an ultrasensitive response to the near-infrared region. The wavelength-dependent bi-directional response enables us to analyze the device mechanism. Our devices have potential applications in hyperspectral imaging.A graphene-semiconductor heterojunction is very attractive for realizing highly sensitive phototransistors due to the strong absorption of the semiconductor layer and the fast charge transport in the graphene. However, the photoresponse is usually limited to a narrow spectral range determined by the bandgap of the semiconductor. Here, an organic heterojunction (C 60 /pentacene) is incorporated on graphene to realize a broadband (405-1550 nm) phototransistor with a high gain of 5.2 × 10 5 and a response time down to 275 µs. The visible and near-infrared parts of the photor...

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We propose a type of pn-junction not formed by impurity-doping, but rather by grading the Al composition in an AlxGa1−xN thin film, resulting in alternating p and n conducting regions due to polarization charge. By linearly grading AlxGa1−xN from 0% to x (x ≤ 30%) and back to 0% Al, a polarization induced pn-junction is formed, even in the absence of any impurity doping. X-ray diffraction reciprocal space maps are used to determine the strain state of the different graded composition samples. Polarization induced doping also provides a solution to the problem of p-type doping efficiency for III-nitrides.

We report a self-powered, single-electrode-based triboelectric sensor (SE-TES) array for detecting object motion inside of a plastic tube. This innovative, cost-effective, simple-designed SE-TES consists of thin-film-based ring-shaped Cu electrodes and a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tube. On the basis of the coupling effect between triboelectrification and electrostatic induction, the sensor generates electric output signals in response to mechanical motion of an object (such as a ball) passing through the electrodes. An array of Cu electrodes linearly aligned along the tube enables the detection of location and speed of the moving steel ball inside. The signal-to-noise ratio of this fabricated device reached 5.3 × 10(3). Furthermore, we demonstrated real-time monitoring and mapping of the motion characteristics of the steel ball inside the tube by using a seven-unit array of electrode channels arranged along the tube. Triggered by the output current signal, LED bulbs were utilized as real-time indicators of the position of a rolling ball. In addition, the SE-TES also shows the capability of detecting blockage in a water pipe. This work demonstrates potentially widespread applications of the triboelectric sensor in a self-powered tracking system, blockage detection, flow control, and logistics monitoring.

In the pursuit of broadband photodetection materials from visible to mid-IR region, the fresh three-dimensional topological insulators (3D TIs) are theoretically predicted to be a promising candidate due to its Dirac-like stable surface state and high absorption rate. In this work, a self-powered inorganic/organic heterojunction photodetector based on n-type 3D TIs Bi 2 Te 3 combined with p-type pentacene thin film was designed and fabricated. Surprisingly, it was found that the Bi 2 Te 3 /pentacene heterojunction photodetector exhibited a fast and wideband response from 450 to 3500 nm. The optimized responsivity of photodetector reached 14.89 A/W, along with the fast response time of 1.89 ms and the ultrahigh external quantum efficiency of 2840%. Moreover, at the mid-IR 3500 nm, our devices demonstrated a responsivity of 1.55 AW −1 , which was several orders of magnitude higher than that of previous 3D TIs photodetector. These excellent properties indicate that the inorganic/organic heterojunction, that is, the combination of 3D TIs with organic materials, is an exciting structure for high performance photodetectors in the wideband detection region. On account of the fact that the device is constructed on mica substrate, this work also represents a potential scenario for flexible optoelectronic devices. KEYWORDS: inorganic/organic heterojunction, wideband photodetector, Bi 2 Te 3 thin films, self-powered, fast response, flexible

Methyl orange (MO) can be degraded by a photocatalytic process using TiO₂ under UV irradiation. The photo-generated holes and electrons can migrate to the surface of TiO₂ particles and serve as redox sources that react with adsorbed reactants, leading to the formation of superoxide radical anions, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals involved in the oxidation of dye pollution. Here, we fabricated a polytetrafluoroethylene-Al based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) whose electric power output can be used for enhancing the photodegradation of MO with the presence of TiO₂ nanoparticles, because the TENG generated electric field can effectively boost the separation and restrain the recombination of photo-generated electrons and holes. Due to the photoelectrical coupling, the degradation percentages of MO for 120 min with and without TENG assistance are 76% and 27%, respectively. The fabricated TENGs have potential applications in wastewater treatment, water splitting, and pollution degradation.

A new method, Fe/Mg co-doping, is proposed for the first time to optimize thermochromic VO2 and the promising performance of VO2-based smart windows for practical applications is successfully achieved.