Triboelectric Laminates with Volumetric Electromechanical Response for Mechanical Energy Harvesting

The main requirement for triboelectric nanogenerator devices is the necessity to have separable or movable parts to harvest mechanical energy, thus complicating their integration into the energy harvesting systems. Herein, triboelectric laminates that show a volumetric electromechanical response are introduced, similar to intrinsic ferroelectric polymers. The laminates are composed of stacked bilayer polymer films with different triboelectric surface properties separated by polymer mesh. This sophisticated design provides dipole alignment across the volume of triboelectric laminate and electromechanical response without applying any poling procedure. Triboelectric laminate generates the open-circuit voltage (V-OC) of 29 V and short-circuit current (I-SC) of 15 nA. Volumetric energy density of 21.13 mu J cm(-3) and a peak average power density of 46.19 mu W cm(-3) are observed. Triboelectric laminate shows an effective piezoelectric constant d(33) of 9.83 pC N-1, higher than reported for piezoelectric polymer like nylon-11. The triboelectric laminate is produced from cheap, mechanically flexible materials that can be produced in large quantities.

Automated summary

A novel sandwich-structured triboelectric generator with volumetric electromechanical response is introduced in this study, capable of generating voltage and current without the need for a polarization process. This design enhances energy and power density effectively, while exhibiting a higher piezoelectric constant. The triboelectric laminate is made from inexpensive and flexible materials, suitable for large-scale production.