Chapter 27 - Biomaterials toward flexible nanogenerators

Abstract

In recent days, demand for energy is gradually increasing with the advancement of technology in portable and wearable electronic goods. Fossil fuel energy is one of the most usable energies being used from the very past. However, alternative renewable energy sources have drawn a great interest rather than nonrenewable fossil fuel energy. Because higher fossil fuels consumption causes the greenhouse effect and global warming, which has a tremendous negative impact on the entire world, there are various technologies (like piezoelectric, triboelectric, thermoelectric, electrostatic, etc.) by which renewable energy can be harvested and utilized in the daily life of human beings. Among them, piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvesting technologies are more suitable since they possess easy processability, lower cost, and higher energy density. Proper material selection is a challenging task for the piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvesting technology. In most cases, synthetic polymer-based materials (PVDF, PTFE, Nylon 66, and many more) have been used to develop piezoelectric and triboelectric energy harvesting devices. But synthetic polymers are neither biocompatible nor biodegradable which results in various environmental issues. To resolve the problems associated with synthetic polymers, selection of suitable natural biomaterials is a major interest area to explore their suitability for the same purpose by assessing their energy harvesting ability. In this chapter, the sources and chemical structure of various biomaterials have been discussed. Moreover, piezoelectric and triboelectric devices based on various biomaterials have been elaborated in a systematic way.