Development of Biocompatible Triboelectric Nanogenerators by Using Polypeptides As the Contact Materials

Abstract

Since the first triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was developed in 2012, it has now become a new energy technology. TENG has been applied to efficiently convert the mechanical vibration energy into electricity. The fundamental mechanism of TENG is based on the contact electrification and electrostatic effect. Among these two effects, surface charge transfer happened during the contact electrification process is the main factor to affect the electric output of TENG. The electric output of most TENG would decrease in environment with high relative humidity, which restricts their application. By using the polypeptide as contact material to construct a biocompatible TENG, we found that the electric output of the TENG can be maintained or even enhanced at a higher relative humidity.