Design of strong-performance, high-heat dissipation rate, and long-lifetime triboelectric nanogenerator based on robust hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanosheets/polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composite films for rotational energy harvesting

Abstract

Here, we design a rotational structure on a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) using a robust hexagonal boron nitride nanosheets/polyvinyl chloride (hBN nanosheets/PVC) composite film as a triboelectric material, leading to strong output performance, high heat-dissipation rate, and long lifetime. At a rotor-stator contact pressure of 0.85 N with a rotational speed of 400 r/min, the optimized 2 wt %-hBN nanosheets/PVC-based TENG can produce a peak output voltage of 142 V with a current of 272 μA, leading to a maximum power of 30.7 mW, which can continuously power some tiny electronics. Note that the surface temperature of the device is 2.4 °C lower than that of the pure PVC film-based TENG after 10 min of continuous operation at 250 r/min. Moreover, the 2 wt %-hBN nanosheets/PVC composite film exhibits the surface charge density, the thermal conductivity, and the friction coefficient of 620 μC/m2, 0.26 W/mk and 0.27, which are 87.3 % higher than, 36.8 % higher than, and 32.5 % lower than that of pure PVC film, providing a new strategy for designing triboelectric materials with high surface charge density, good thermal conductivity and low wear resistance.