Intermediate Layer Research Articles

Well-type thick-shell quantum dots combined with double hole transport layers device structure assisted realization of high-performance quantum dot light-emitting diodes

Quantum dot (QD) light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) are promising for next-generation lighting and displays. Considering the optimization design of both the QD and device structure is expected to improve the QLED's performance significantly but has rarely been reported. Here, we use the thick-shell QDs combined with a dual-hole transport layer device structure to construct a high-efficiency QLED. The optimized thick-shell QDs with CdS/CdSe/CdS/ZnS seed/spherical quantum well/shell/shell geometry exhibit a high photoluminescence quantum yield of 96% at a shell thickness of 5.9 nm. The intermediate emissive CdSe layer with coherent strain ensures defect-free growth of the thick CdS and ZnS outer shells. Based on the orthogonal solvents assisted Poly-TPD&PVK dual-hole transport layer device architecture, the champion QLED achieved a maximum external quantum efficiency of 22.5% and a maximum luminance of 259955 cd m-2, which are 1.6 and 3.7 times that of thin-shell QDs based devices with single hole transport layer, respectively. Our study provides a feasible idea for further improving the performance of QLED devices.

Corrosion resistance of a superhydrophobic polypropylene coating on magnesium alloy AZ31

Purpose To improve the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys, the construction of protective coatings is necessary to extend the service life of Mg-based materials. Design/methodology/approach SiO2 nanoparticles modified by dodecyltrimethoxysilane (DTMS) were added to the PP and a superhydrophobic Mg(OH)2/PP-60mSiO2 composite coating was fabricated on the surface of AZ31 magnesium alloy via the hydrothermal method and subsequently the immersion treatment. Findings Hydrophilic SiO2 nanoparticles become hydrophobic after modified by DTMS, showing a higher dispersibility in xylene. By incorporating modified SiO2 nanoparticles into the composite PP coating, the hydrophobicity of the layer was enhanced, resulting in a contact angle of 166.3° and a sliding angle of 3.4°. It also improved the water repellency and durability of the coating. Furthermore, the intermediate layer of Mg(OH)2 significantly strengthened the bond between the PP layer and the substrate. The Mg(OH)2/PP-60mSiO2 composite coating significantly enhances the corrosion resistance of the magnesium alloy by effectively blocking the infiltration of the corrosion anions during corrosion. The corrosion current density of the Mg(OH)2/PP-60mSiO2 composite coating is approximately 8.23 × 10–9 A·cm-2, which can achieve a magnitude three times lower than its substrate, making it a promising surface modification for the Mg alloy. Originality/value The composite coating effectively and durably enhances the corrosion resistance of magnesium alloys.

Improvement of corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity of a Cr–C coated heat-assisted forming stainless steel bipolar plate for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Heat-assisted forming is gaining increasing attention for its potential in improving the formability and quality of metallic bipolar plate (BPP) of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). However, the effects of heat-assisted forming and the subsequent coating process on corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity of stainless steel BPP still remain unclear. This work proposes a way to improve simultaneously the corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity of heat-assisted forming stainless steel BPP by depositing a Cr–C coating directly on its surface without removing the oxide layer using the magnetron sputtering method. Potentiodynamic tests indicate that self-corrosion current density and corrosion current density at 1.0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) of the Cr–C coated heat-assisted forming SS316L BPP prepared under 900 °C for 10 min are 0.021–0.040 μA cm−2 and 77.54 μA cm−2, respectively, both of which are smaller than those of coated SS316L BPP formed under room temperature. In addition, the contact resistance is close to that of the gold-plated copper plate under the same pressure. The corrosion resistant intermediate oxide layer and conductive network formed between Cr–C coating and metal substrate through defects of oxide layer may be the main reason for improvement of its corrosion resistance and electrical conductivity, respectively.

SMaLL: Software for Rapidly Instantiating Machine Learning Libraries

Interest in deploying deep neural network (DNN) inference on edge devices has resulted in an explosion of the number and types of hardware platforms that machine learning (ML) libraries must support. High-level programming interfaces, such as TensorFlow, can be readily ported across different devices; however, maintaining performance when porting the low-level implementation is more nuanced. High-performance inference implementations require an effective mapping of the high-level interface to the target hardware platform. Commonly, this mapping may use optimizing compilers to generate code at compile time or high-performance vendor libraries that have been specialized to the target platform. Both approaches rely on expert knowledge across levels to produce an efficient mapping. This makes supporting new architectures difficult and time-consuming. In this work, we present a DNN library framework, SMaLL, that is easily extensible to new architectures. The framework uses a unified loop structure and shared, cache-friendly data format across all intermediate layers, eliminating the time and memory overheads incurred by data transformation between layers. Each layer is implemented by specifying its dimensions and a kernel , the key computing operation of that layer. The unified loop structure and kernel abstraction allows the reuse of code across layers and computing platforms. New architectures only require a few hundred lines in the kernel to be redesigned. To show the benefits of our approach, we have developed software that supports a range of layer types and computing platforms; this software is easily extensible for rapidly instantiating high-performance DNN libraries. An evaluation of the portability of our framework is shown by instantiating end-to-end networks from the MLPerf:tiny benchmark suite on five ARM platforms and one x86 platform (an AMD Zen 2). We also show that the end-to-end performance is comparable to or better than ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, TVM, and LibTorch.

Use of Auricular Composite graft in Rib-Cartilage based Rhinoplasty for Contracted Nose Correction.

This study investigated the effects of combining an auricular composite graft with rib cartilage-based rhinoplasty to correct contracted noses in Asian patients with a history of multiple previous operations. A total of 43 patients were included in the retrospective analysis of secondary rhinoplasty procedures. The surgical approach involved short-nose correction, utilizing rib cartilage for septal extension grafts and chondrocutaneous composite grafts harvested from the conchal part of the ear for internal nasal lining reconstruction. Our assessment encompassed clinical outcomes, the occurrence of complications, and the utilization of three-dimensional (3D) photography for nasal measurements at the preoperative, 3-month, and 1-year postoperative stages. Regarding graft survival, 12 (27.9%) patients showed >80% graft engraftment, followed by 29 (67.4%) patients with 50%-80% graft engraftment, and 2 (4.6%) patients with 20%-50% graft engraftment. Two of these patients required wound irrigation for infection control and additional repair and were finally discharged without significant nasal deformity. At 3 months postoperatively, 3D anthropometry showed significant differences in nasal dorsum length (4.46 ± 1.79 mm), nasal height (1.25 ± 1.25 mm), nasal tip projection (4.06 ± 1.76 mm), and columellar-labial angle (22.75° ± 14.19°). No significant relapse of nasal parameters was noted 1 year postoperatively. Auricular composite graft combined with rib cartilage-based rhinoplasty enables the comprehensive restoration of nasal structures, addressing the inner, intermediate, and outer layers. This approach can serve as an effective and sustainable option for correcting contracted noses in Asian patients who have undergone multiple operations.

Characterization of GaAs and GaAs/Cr/GaAs interfacial layers fabricated via magnetron sputtering on silicon (100)

The obtaining and study of semiconductor materials have been topics of interest for decades. However, alternatives that allow greater versatility at the time of their application have yet to be explored, such as the inclusion of some transition metals. In this work, we report the obtaining of GaAs and GaAs/Cr/GaAs layers, which were prepared by r.f. magnetron sputtering on a Si (100) substrate by varying the deposition time of the intermediate Cr layer for t = 5 min and 10 min, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy in cross-section was carried out to determine the growth mode of the GaAs and GaAs/Cr/GaAs films. The percentage of the elements in the GaAs/Cr/GaAs thin films was determined through energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) in cross-sections along the entire layer thickness. X-ray diffraction and micro-Raman spectroscopy at room temperature were measured to analyze the formation of CrAs and GaCr binary phases by diffusion across interlayers. Finally, we conclude on the possible use of this technique to obtain semiconductor alloys with Cr inclusion.

On the Possibility of Improving the Oxidation Resistance of High-Chromium Ferritic Stainless Steel Using Reactive Element Oxide Nanoparticles

AbstractHigh-chromium ferritic steels are current the only viable candidates for cheap interconnect materials for application in high-temperature solid oxide fuel and electrolyzer cells (HT-SOFCs/SOECs). The durability and operating characteristics of interconnects manufactured using these materials may be improved significantly by applying a protective-conducting MoCo2O4 coating and depositing an intermediate layer consisting of nanoparticles of Gd2O3—a reactive element oxide—on the surface of the steel substrate. The study demonstrated that the conditions of the thermal treatment of this layered system determine the efficacy of the applied modification with the reactive element. The persistence of this effect was tested over 7000 hours of quasi-isothermal oxidation in air at 800 °C.

Controlling the residual charge to alleviate the frequency dependence of ternary direct current triboelectric nanogenerators

Recently, the ternary direct current triboelectric nanogenerators (T-DC-TENGs), especially those working in rotation mode, have received much attentions due to their high DC output and superior durability. However, the frequency dependence of T-DC-TENG was largely ignored, which greatly hinders the miniaturization of the device. Because the electron-donating capacity of positive tribo-layer is unequal to the electron-gaining capacity of negative tribo-layer, the number of residual charges on the intermediate triboelectric layer due to not instant dissipation depends on the rotation frequency of T-DC-TENGs. At higher frequency, the more undissipated residual charges will exemplify their effect on the triboelectrification process and limit the output of T-DC-TENGs. Herein, we disclose these residual charges first and then their frequency dependent effect on triboelectrification in T-DC-TENGs. In this study, a charge collecting electrode (CCE) is introduced to construct an electrostatic breakdown T-DC-TENG (EBT-DC-TENG) with greatly reduced frequency dependence. By efficiently reducing the residual charges, the charge density output of EBT-DC-TENG is increased by 51.75% at 90 rpm (from 145.7 to 221.1 μC m−2 r−1) compared with T-DC-TENG without CCE. Furthermore, with the help of its soft property, the less residual charges accumulated polyester fur enables EBT-DC-TENG to maintain 100% output without wear after 10,000 cycles. This EBT-DC-TENG with a better crest factor of 1.028 can continuously power 1200 LEDs in series connection, showing unique advantages in harvesting environmental energy steadily and efficiently. This work also provides a theoretical and practical path for the miniaturization of the rotating mode T-DC-TENG.

Effect of high-energy shot peening process on the oxidation behaviour of AISI 321 stainless steel at 900 °C

ABSTRACT The present work comparatively investigates the oxidation behaviour of AISI 321 austenitic stainless steel at 900 °C in Ar-21vol.%O2 in two conditions of solution annealed (SAed) and after a high-energy shot peening process (HESPed). Kinetic observations indicated that during the initial 25 h of oxidation, the HESPed sample exhibits higher oxidation kinetics. However, as oxidation progresses, the kinetics of the SAed sample surpasses in a way that after 150 h, the weight gain for SAed is 0.93 mg/cm2, and for HESPed, it is 0.71 mg/cm2. GI-XRD results after 150 h of oxidation revealed similar oxide phases on both samples, including (Cr,Fe)2O3, Mn(Fe,Cr)2O4, and Fe2O3. An important point is that the oxide formed on the surface of the SAed sample, unlike HESPed, undergoes severe spallation and cracking after 150 h, leading to sub-surface oxidation and the formation of Ni-rich oxide phases such as Ni(Fe,Cr)2O4. The enhancement observed in the oxidation performance of the HESPed sample can be ascribed to the augmented density of high-diffusivity paths, a consequence of the high-energy shot peening process, and the prompt development of uniform inner Si-rich and intermediate Cr-rich oxide layers.

Improved Electrocatalytic Degradation of Alizarin Yellow R by Ti/Zr-SnO2/PbO2 Electrodes Doped with Ytterbium

Introduction: Electrochemical oxidation of Alizarin Yellow R (AYR) was investigated on Ytterbium (Yb) doped Ti/PbO2 electrodes prepared by an electrodeposition method. Method: The etching of the Ti sheet by using a mixed acid of H2SO4 and TA (volume ratio= 2: 1) for 50 min at 100 °C could produce a suitable interface for further modification. The morphologies, composition, and electrochemical properties of Yb doping on the electrode were characterized by SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy), EDS (Energy-Dispersive Spectroscopy), Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The introduction of an appropriate intermediate layer, Zr-SnO2, was performed. We also tried to fabricate Ytterbium (Yb) doped Ti/Zr-SnO2/PbO2 electrodes by an electrodeposition method on the intermediate layer of Zr-SnO2. The surface morphology of the Ti/Zr-SnO2/PbO2 electrode was changed due to the Yb doping, which affected the electrocatalytic activity of the modified electrode. Result: The developed Yb-doped Ti/Zr-SnO2/PbO2 electrode showed improved removal efficiencies toward AYR. Conclusion: The effects of current density and initial AYR concentration on the electrochemical oxidation of AYR by Yb-doped Ti/Zr-SnO2/PbO2 were investigated. The removal rate of AYR was 97.3% in 180 min under the conditions of the current density of 60 mA/cm2 , initial AYR concentration of 50.0 mg L-1 , and Na2SO4 concentration of 0.10 mol L-1 .

Development of high barrier poly(l-actic acid)/chitosan/graphene oxide flexible films for meat packaging by layer-by-layer

An new high-barrier packaging films for meat preservation were obtained by depositing graphene oxide (GO) layer-by-layer (LbL) on poly(l-lactic acid)(PLLA)-poly (butylene itaconate) (PBI) copolymers (PLBI) with chitosan (CS) as bonding layer in this study. The 1H NMR results revealed that PLBI copolymer was successful synthesized. The introduction of PBI reduced the Tg and crystallization capacity of PLLA film, which made the copolymer films exhibit extremely high flexibility (up to 186.1% elongation at break). The film also exhibited high hydrophilicity, which was favorable for the effective attachment of CS. With CS as an intermediate layer, the FTIR and SEM results showed that the GO was evenly distributed onto the PLBI film surface due to the electrostatic interaction. The oxygen, water vapor and UV light barrier properties of PLBI/CS/(GO-CS)x films were improved and increased with the GO-CS layers. The PLBI/CS/(GO-CS)10 films, with extremely low oxygen permeability coefficients about 0.4 × 10−8 cm3 m/m2·h·Pa, delayed the increase in weight loss, hardness, pH, TVB-N, TBARS, and total viable counts of chilled meat during storage. It also decreased the discoloration, and loss of springness and cohesiveness of chilled meat caused by long-term refrigeration. The LbL films even showed better freshness-keeping effect than commercial PA/PE films due to its superior barrier and certain antibacterial properties, suggesting great potential application in fresh meat preservation.

MXene/COFs membrane with sandwich structure for rapid salt/dye separation by layer-by-layer electrophoretic deposition

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have evolved into a transformative category of nanofiltration materials due to their intrinsic pore channels and high porosity, sparking a burgeoning interest in fully harnessing the potential of COFs for applications in nanofiltration. Herein, a sandwich structured MXene/COFs membrane was fabricated by the technique of layer-by-layer electrophoretic deposition (LBL EPD), with COFs nanospheres (COFs NPs) serving as the intermediate layer. During the EPD process, controlling the deposition time allows for convenient regulation of each layer's thickness, enabling rapid production of defect-free MXene/COFs membranes. The ultra-thin MXene layer offers excellent film-forming properties for COFs NPs, whereas the intermediate layer of COFs NPs plays a primary sieving function. Moreover, the pore-rich COFs NPs, the ultra-thin MXene layer, and the COFs NPs layer with abundant slits guarantee short and successive mass transport pathways. Under optimal conditions, the MXene/COFs membrane provided a permeance as high as 200.2 L‧m−2‧h−1‧bar−1 and a rejection rate of Congo red (CR) as high as 98.9 %. This exceptional performance holds steadfast even within pH ranges of 7–11 and during long-term operation. Meanwhile, MXene/COFs membranes exhibit commendable salt/dye separation performance, achieving an excellent separation factor of 121.1 for NaCl/CR. Moreover, the membrane's exceptional robustness and mechanical strength further facilitate its stable utilization under high transmembrane pressure (1–5 bar). To summarize, MXene/COFs membranes, characterized by their excellent nanofiltration and salt/dye separation performance, highlight the advantages of COFs within the nanofiltration field. This study introduces an innovative alternative approach to designing COFs membranes for highly efficient and high-precision molecular separations.

Student-friendly knowledge distillation

In knowledge distillation, the knowledge from the teacher model is often too complex for the student model to thoroughly process. However, good teachers in real life always simplify complex material before teaching it to students. Inspired by this fact, we propose student-friendly knowledge distillation (SKD) to simplify teacher output into new knowledge representations, which makes the learning of the student model easier and more effective. SKD involves a softening processing and a learning simplifier. First, the softening processing uses the temperature hyperparameter to soften the output logits of the teacher model, which simplifies the output to some extent and makes it easier for the learning simplifier to process. The learning simplifier utilizes the attention mechanism to further simplify the knowledge of the teacher model and is jointly trained with the student model using the distillation loss, which means that the process of simplification is correlated with the training objective of the student model and ensures that the simplified new teacher knowledge representation is more suitable for the specific student model. Furthermore, since SKD does not change the form of the distillation loss, it can be easily combined with other distillation methods that are based on the logits or features of intermediate layers to enhance its effectiveness. Therefore, SKD has wide applicability. The experimental results on the CIFAR-100 and ImageNet datasets show that our method achieves state-of-the-art performance while maintaining high training efficiency.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Verification of Hot Roll Bonding of 7000 Series Aluminum Alloy Laminated Materials

In the present study, the hot roll bonding process of 7000 series aluminum alloy laminated materials was numerically simulated and investigated using the finite element method, and the process parameters were experimentally verified by properties testing and microstructure analysis after hot roll bonding. In the roll bonding process of aluminum alloy laminated materials, the effects of the intermediate layer, pass reduction ratio, rolling speed and thickness ratio of component layers were studied. The results of finite element simulations showed that the addition of a 701 intermediate layer in the hot roll bonding process could effectively coordinate the deformation of the 705 layer and 706 layer and prevented the warping of the laminated material during hot rolling. It is recommended to use a multi-pass rolling process with small deformation and high speed, and the recommended rolling reduction ratio is 20%~30%, the hot rolling speed is 1.5~2.5 m/s and the thickness ratio of the 705 layer and 706 layer is about 1:5. Based on the above numerical results, five-layer and seven-layer 7000 series aluminum alloy laminated materials were prepared by the hot roll bonding process. The results showed that metallurgical bonding was realized between each component layer, and no delamination was observed from the tensile fracture between the interfaces of component layers. The tensile strength of the prepared laminated materials decreased with the increase in the thickness ratio of the 705 layer, and the bonding strengths of the laminated materials were in the range of 88–99 MPa. The experimental results verified the rationality of the process parameters recommended by the numerical simulations in terms of warping and delamination prevention.

Low-cost O2 plasma activation assisted direct bonding of β-Ga2O3 and Si substrates in air

This study presents a novel technique for directly bonding β-Ga2O3 and Si substrates using O2 plasma activation at room temperature. The activation process resulted in excellent surface hydrophilicity and roughness. Annealing in an N2 atmosphere revealed a bonding strength of 6.23 MPa, with partial fracture of the Si substrate. The bonding interface was observed by TEM and EDS. A distorted amorphous intermediate layer with a thickness of 100 nm and amorphous bubbles were observed in the bonding interface. In addition, the Ga, O, and Si elements were diffused and enriched, forming approximately 30 nm nodules at the bonding interface. This method offers a promising approach for integrating wide bandgap semiconductor materials in devices, bypassing the need for vacuum treatment.

Side-Scan Sonar Image Matching Method Based on Topology Representation

In the realm of underwater environment detection, achieving information matching stands as a pivotal step, forming an indispensable component for collaborative detection and research in areas such as distributed mapping. Nevertheless, the progress in studying the matching of underwater side-scan sonar images has been hindered by challenges including low image quality, intricate features, and susceptibility to distortion in commonly used side-scan sonar images. This article presents a comprehensive overview of the advancements in underwater sonar image processing. Building upon the novel SchemaNet image topological structure extraction model, we introduce a feature matching model grounded in side-scan sonar images. The proposed approach employs a semantic segmentation network as a teacher model to distill the DeiT model during training, extracting the attention matrix of intermediate layer outputs. This emulates SchemaNet’s transformation method, enabling the acquisition of high-dimensional topological structure features from the image. Subsequently, utilizing a real side-scan sonar dataset and augmenting data, we formulate a matching dataset and train the model using a graph neural network. The resulting model demonstrates effective performance in side-scan sonar image matching tasks. These research findings bear significance for underwater detection and target recognition and can offer valuable insights and references for image processing in diverse domains.

Broadband terahertz absorber based on patterned slotted vanadium dioxide

This study aims to explore broadband terahertz absorbers based on metamaterials by introducing a design featuring patterned slotted vanadium dioxide. This absorber structure includes a vanadium dioxide resonator layer, an intermediate Topas dielectric layer, and an underlying metal reflector layer. To enhance the absorption bandwidth, the vanadium dioxide resonant layer is strategically patterned to optimize impedance matching. Simulation outcomes reveal that, under positive incidence, the absorption rate exceeds 90 % within the frequency range of 1.5–4.2 THz. The absorber demonstrates a substantial absorption bandwidth of 2.7 THz, centered at 2.85 THz, corresponding to a relative bandwidth of 94.7 %. Additionally, through modulation of the conductivity of vanadium dioxide, the absorption peak can be finely tuned, spanning from approximately 2.5 %–99 %. In addition, it's angularly symmetrical and exhibits absorption properties for wide-angle incidence. The tunable terahertz absorber designed in this paper simultaneously achieves high absorption over a wide frequency range, is dynamically tunable, and has a simple structure. From the application point of view, it can provide a way to realize detection, and imaging in the terahertz range.

Conserved cysteines prevent C-mannosylation of mucin Cys domains.

Mucins are major components of the mucus. Besides the highly O-glycosylated tandem repeat domains, mucins contain Cys domains (CysDs). CysDs contain conserved disulfide-forming cysteine residues as well as a WxxW motif. Since this is the consensus sequence for tryptophan C-mannosylation, mucin CysDs have been suggested to be targets for C-mannosyltransferases, but this has never been directly shown. Here, we recombinantly expressed human mucinCysDs in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells and analyzed the C-mannosylation status. Mass spectrometric analysis revealed that the putative C-mannose site is not or only barely C-mannosylated. However, mutation of the adjacent cysteine residues enabled C-mannosylation to occur. In contrast to mucin CysDs, the homologous CysD of human cartilage intermediate layer protein 1 (CILP1) lacks these cysteine residues preceding the WxxW motif. We show that CILP1 CysD is C-mannosylated, but introducing a cysteine at the -2 position causes this modification to be lost. We thus conclude that the presence of cysteine residues prevents the modification of the WxxW motif in CysDs.

Sandwiched solar interfacial evaporation system: Integrating phase change material/hydrogel/NiCo2O4 nanoflower for superior desalination

Solar-driven interfacial evaporation is a kind of sustainable and eco-friendly method of water treatment to alleviate the global water crisis. Here we demonstrate a novel sandwiched solar interfacial evaporator integrating phase change material (PCM), sodium alginate hydrogel (SA), and NiCo2O4 nanoflower featuring superb evaporation and glorious thermal energy management to achieve efficient energy utilization and long-term evaporation stability. After being combined with filter paper, NiCo2O4 nanoflower composites are adopted as the light absorber on the top layer, which can achieve an absorption of about 96.5 % in the full spectral range. SA hydrogel has been used as an intermediate layer for rapid water supply to the evaporation interface and to prevent salt deposition. Under one sun irradiation (1 kW m−2), the evaporator exhibits a high evaporation rate (1.94 kg m-2h−1) and excellent endurance in the treatment of high salt-concentration water. In particular, benefiting from the rational combination of PCM, the water production reached up to 12.13 kg m−2, which is 2.23 kg m-2higher than that of the evaporator without PCM under natural solar irradiation for 9 h. This work presents a promising concept for maximally utilizing intermittent solar irradiation energy and prolonged salt-free deposition desalination.

Boosting the triboelectric performances of biowaste chitosan keratin triboelectric nanogenerator using carbon composite film as charge storage and charge recombination blocking intermediate layer

Environmental conservation efforts are promoting energy-generation technologies that avoid the use of highly polluting fuels and promote the reuse of waste materials. Advances in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have led to the progress in harvesting energy from ambient mechanical sources and powering small devices and sensors while being compact, flexible, biocompatible, and eco-friendly. Nevertheless, the practical applications of TENG have limitations. Therefore, the development of TENG with excellent tribological performance, eco-friendliness, and low cost is crucial. Consequently, an environmentally friendly, inexpensive TENG device with outstanding triboelectric performance was designed using keratin-enhanced chitosan as a tribo-positive material, a carbon film as an intermediate layer, and polytetrafluoroethylene as a triboelectric negative material. The device was purposely designed to simultaneously play a role in waste treatment and efficient green energy harvesting. Therefore, keratin was extracted from recycled fur, and a carbon film was selected to enhance the triboelectric performance because of its excellent electrical conductivity and dielectric constant. The triboelectric properties of a chitosan keratin intermediate layer (CKI)-TENG were systematically investigated. Practical applications of the CKI-TENG in charging electronic devices and waste-noise harvesting were also studied. The developed CKI TENG exhibited outstanding triboelectric performance compared to a TENG device without an intermediate layer. Particularly, the charge transfer, output voltage and power density was improved by 19%, 46%, and 60%, respectively, compared to the output of the chitosan-keratin (CK) TENG device. It also exhibited outstanding cyclic and charging-discharging stabilities. In addition, the power density of the developed CKI TENG was higher than that of previously reported TENG devices. Thus, it can play a significant role in green and clean energy generation and the utilization of the harvested energy in practical applications, such as biomedical sensors, charging electronic devices, smart textiles, and sensors.