Abstract
The continuous quest to enhance the output performance of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) based on the surface charge density of the tribolayer has motivated researchers to harvest mechanical energy efficiently. Most of the previous work focused on the enhancement of negative triboelectric charges. The enhancement of charge density over positive tribolayer has been less investigated. In this work, we developed a layer-by-layer assembled multilayer graphene-based TENG to enhance the charge density by creatively introducing a charge trapping layer (CTL) Al2O3 in between the positive triboelectric layer and conducting electrode to construct an attractive flexible TENG. Based on the experimental results, the optimized three layers of graphene TENG (3L-Gr-TENG) with CTL showed a 30-fold enhancement in output power compared to its counterpart, 3L-Gr-TENG without CTL. This remarkably enhanced performance can be ascribed to the synergistic effect between the optimized graphene layers with high dielectric CTL. Moreover, the device exhibited outstanding stability after continuous operation of >2000 cycles. Additionally, the device was capable of powering 20 green LEDs and sufficient to power an electronic timer with rectifying circuits. This research provides a new insight to improve the charge density of Gr-TENGs as energy harvesters for next-generation flexible electronics.
Highlights
With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, the demand for flexible, portable and wearable electronic devices has increased dramatically
charge trapping layer (CTL) underneath the graphene plays an important role in the enhancement of surface charge density due to its enlarged effective contact area compared to the flat surface of pristine 3L-Gr-triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), which in turn enhances the output performance of the Gr-TENG
Maximum VOC and ISC values of ~55 V and 0.78 μA were achieved by the 3L-Gr-TENG with an Al2 O3 CTL
Summary
With the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, the demand for flexible, portable and wearable electronic devices has increased dramatically. Nanomaterials 2021, 11, 2276 are some of the critical issues of TENGs and could limit certain practical applications In these aspects, significant research effort has been devoted to enhancing the surface charge density of tribomaterials such as plasma treatment, surface functionalization of triboelectric materials using corona discharge and micro/nanopatterning of tribosurface area [10,11,12]. Another group has reported high output performance by enhancing the positive charge trap [27] Based on these previous studies, it has been proved that the enhancement of output performance of TENG presents a positive correlation with the increase in surface charge density and charge trapping sites without degrading the properties of triboelectric material. We report a new approach to achieve high output performance of layer-by-layer assembled multilayer graphene-based TENG by introducing Al2 O3 CTL in between the positive triboelectric layer and the bottom conducting electrode. This work demonstrates a novel and cost-effective method to improve the performance of flexible Gr-TENGs, which can be a power candidate for next-generation flexible energy harvesting systems
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