Self-powered flat panel displays enabled by motion-driven alternating current electroluminescence

Abstract

Self-powered systems have attracted significant attention in the past decades due to its independent and sustainable operations without other power source. In this work, a fully integrated self-powered flat panel display is proposed by coupling a ZnS powder based alternating current electroluminescence (ACEL) device and a built-in triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). The built-in TENG was made of two different filtration membranes, avoiding conventional complicated nanostructure preparation process. This low-cost TENG can deliver a high output of Voc=300V and Isc=30μA, which is enough to directly turn on a light-emitting array. For the first time, a self-powered flexible ACEL device which might have great potential in intelligent electronic skin systems is demonstrated. The well matching between the electricity demand of ACEL and the output performance of TENG not only simplifies the supporting circuits but also saves the energy consumption on AC–DC transformation. These results indicate that the new motion-driven ACEL should have great potential towards the practical application of TENG in self-powered systems.