Improved Electrical Output Performance of Cellulose-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators Enabled by Negative Triboelectric Materials.

Abstract

Cellulose-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have attracted widespread attention due to the low cost and environmentally friendly characteristics of cellulose. However, achieving high electrical energy output from these generators still presents significant challenges. Here, cellulose is dissolved-regenerated to form a composite aerogel with high specific surface area, in which cellulose-based composites with excellent negative triboelectric properties are developed by coupling the rich 3D network structure of the regenerated cellulose aerogel, modified barium titanate, and poly(vinylidene fluoride). The TENGs assembled from the composite materials exhibit an output voltage of 1040V and a current of 1.165mA at an external force of 8 N and a frequency of 4Hz, outperforming all cellulose-based negative triboelectric materials. In addition, the nanogenerators have a stable electrical energy output capacity, with no significant property degradation in 100000 contact-separation tests. The excellent electrical output property of the composite materials enables them to harvest energy from human movement and waterdrops, demonstrating their great application prospects in wearable devices, energy harvesting devices, self-powered sensors, and other fields.