Nanogenerators Based on Organic–Inorganic Heterojunction Materials

Abstract

Thanks to the inherent synergies and diversity of combinations of their functional characteristics; organic–inorganic heterojunction nanomaterials have enabled and inspired important applications of energy-harvesting technologies to meet emerging energy needs. This chapter presents a few of the latest developments in emerging energy-harvesting devices, which are organic–inorganic nanogenerators (NGs) based on various mechanisms, such as piezoelectric, triboelectric, and their hybridization. The operating principle of piezoelectric and triboelectric NGs are briefly introduced, followed by an exploration of utilizing novel organic–inorganic heterojunction nanomaterials and composite energy materials to fabricate high-performance piezoelectric, triboelectric and hybrid NGs. A few exemplary devices are presented in more detail, including piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) based on InN nanowires (NWs) or hybrid ZnO nanostructures, a compact hybrid energy cell that integrates a PENG with a solar cell (SC), cascaded triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) that can drive a wireless sensing unit and a hybrid device that integrates a PENG with a TENG. The organic–inorganic nanomaterial-enabled energy harvesting technologies open up new application opportunities in renewable energy, self-powered electronics, Internet of things, structure health monitoring, to name a few.