Output Enhancement of Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on Hierarchically Regular Cadmium Coordination Polymers for Photocycloaddition

Exploiting the well-arranged and tunable frameworks of crystalline materials, we herein report coordination polymers (CPs) with modulated hierarchical structures as triboelectric materials to construct and extend the application scope of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Different lengths and shapes of bridging ligands [4,4 '-bpa = 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethane, 4,4 '-bpe = 1,2-bis(4-pyridyl)ethene, and 4,4 '-bpp = 1,3di(2-pyridyl)propane for 1, 2, and 3, respectively] were used to construct Cd-CP-based hierarchical frameworks. These compounds were used as triboelectric materials, and their electronic structure contributions were determined by the output of the corresponding TENGs. The results indicated that 2-TENG with the 4,4 '-bpe ligand had the highest output, attributed to the improvement in the electron activity due to the pi-conjugation group in the bridging ligand, which was further verified by density functional theory calculations. Furthermore, 2@PVDF (PVDF = polyvinylidene fluoride) composite films with different concentrations of Cd-CP were prepared. Detailed electrical characterizations revealed that the arrangement of 12% active constituents of Cd-CP-2 effectively enhanced the output performance of 2@PVDF-TENG, which could light up an ultraviolet lamp plate to successfully execute the [2 + 2] photocycloaddition.

Automated summary

In this study, coordination polymers were used as triboelectric materials to expand the application range of triboelectric nanogenerators by utilizing the well-arranged and tunable frameworks of crystalline materials. The electronic structure contributions of different bridging ligands were determined and their effects on the output of TENGs were verified. Additionally, adjusting the concentration of Cd-CP in PVDF composite films effectively enhanced the output performance of TENGs.