Triboelectric Laminates with Volumetric Electromechanical Response for Mechanical Energy Harvesting

Abstract

The main requirement for triboelectric nanogenerator devices is the necessity to have separable or movable parts to harvest mechanical energy, thus complicating their integration into the energy harvesting systems. Herein, triboelectric laminates that show a volumetric electromechanical response are introduced, similar to intrinsic ferroelectric polymers. The laminates are composed of stacked bilayer polymer films with different triboelectric surface properties separated by polymer mesh. This sophisticated design provides dipole alignment across the volume of triboelectric laminate and electromechanical response without applying any poling procedure. Triboelectric laminate generates the open‐circuit voltage (VOC) of 29 V and short‐circuit current (ISC) of 15 nA. Volumetric energy density of 21.13 µJ cm−3 and a peak average power density of 46.19 µW cm−3 are observed. Triboelectric laminate shows an effective piezoelectric constant d33 of 9.83 pC N−1, higher than reported for piezoelectric polymer like nylon‐11. The triboelectric laminate is produced from cheap, mechanically flexible materials that can be produced in large quantities.

Recycled Polystyrene Waste to Triboelectric Nanogenerators: Volumetric Electromechanically Responsive Laminates from Same‐Material Contact Electrification

“…This aligned interface can be considered analogous to using inversely polarized fluoropolymers in a TENG configuration. [48,49] To demonstrate the full potential of rPS as a mechanical energy-harvesting material, contact-separation tests were performed at high speeds, up to 0.73 m s À1 , analogous to the walking speed of many patients requiring wearable electronics and sensors. [50] These tests resulted in an increase in measured peak-to-peak voltage to 200 AE 30 V and a further order of magnitude increase in I sc up to 12 000 AE 500 nA (Table 2, Figure S5, Supporting Information).…”