Antibacterial self-cleaning nylon-11/TiO2nanofiber membranes as triboelectric nanogenerators

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), among the most simple and efficient means to harvest mechanical energy, have great potential as self-powered gadgets and sensors for multipurpose applications. In this work, Nylon-11/TiO2 nanofiber membranes have been developed as a prospective tribopositive material for wearable TENG devices with superior properties of high mechanical strength, thermal stability, hydrophobicity, and antibacterial activity. The addition of TiO2 in the electrospun Nylon-11 nanofiber matrix resulted in high-quality, uniformly spun membranes with reduced fiber diameter and self-cleaning property. Incorporating TiO2 nanocrystals imparted semicrystalline nature, good physicochemical properties, enhanced piezoelectric γ phase, and antibacterial properties in the as-fabricated Nylon-11/TiO2 nanofibers, which are advantageous to wearable TENGs. 5 wt% Nylon-11/TiO2 TENGs of [2 × 2 cm2] area were found to have exceptional triboelectric properties with short circuit current (ISC) of 5.1 μA and open circuit voltage (VOC) of 56 V measured at an applied force of 10 N and frequency 10 Hz. The as-fabricated TENGs also showed extraordinary performance towards simple palm tapping with high outputs of 53 μA and 283 V, powering 80 LEDs by the rectified output.