Phosphorus-Doped g-C3N4 Induces Self-Polarization PVDF for High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator As Wearable Power Sources

Abstract

In recent years, the requirement for wearable electronic energy has become increasingly popular, which can be seen from the creation of numerous energy harvesters and storage devices. Among them, a new type of energy harvesting technology named triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has gradually matured for nearly ten years. Increasing the output performance by enhancing the surface charge of the TENG is what most researchers have focused on recently. There are several ways such as changing the surface structures, improving the dielectric constant and spontaneous polarization, which is related to this work. Some papers mention that filling nanoparticles or adding 2-dimensional material will induce PVDF self-polarization to the beta phase, making it a highly electronegative state. Moreover, adding high electronegative atoms will also change the state of the PVDF. Therefore, we synthesize the PVDF film by adding phosphorus-doped g-C3N4 (PCN) in order to enhance the output performance. By introducing the P atom into the matrix of g-C3N4 via an annealing process, the P atom in g-C3N4 not only increases the electronegativity of the film surface but also induces PVDF to a polarized crystal b phase for absorbing more positive charges. Consequently, the TENG with PVDF/PCN displays a remarkable improvement in output performance compared to the pristine PVDF-based TENG with more than a 100 V increase. Furthermore, the flexibility and durability of PVDF/PCN thin film have the potential to be widely used in self-powered wearable sources. Figure 1