Toward Commercialization of Mechanical Energy Harvester: Reusable Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Closed-Loop Mass Production of Recyclable Thermoplastic Fluoropolymer with Microstructures

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been considered a promising energy harvester. However, the wear-induced limited lifetime of the surface structure on fluoropolymeric contact layers of the TENG has been a critical issue in its commercialization because surface structures on soft engineering materials play a key role in enhancing the generation of electricity in TENGs. After the surface structure on the polymeric contact layer is worn out, the layer is required to be replaced with a new one with intact surface structures to reenhance the degraded output performance of the TENG. Herein, injection molding-assisted mass production is applied to manufacture micro/nanoscale surface-structured perfluoroalkoxy alkane (PFA) contact layers, which exhibit easily replaceable but fully recyclable characteristics. The optimized production time is shorter than 1 min, and the unit cost under $1 of manufacturing surface-structured PFA contact layers is achieved. TENG with the fabricated PFA contact layer can generate over 620 V of voltage and up to 12.4 mW of power from solid-solid contact and separation when the contact area is 5 cmx5 cm and the contact frequency is 10 Hz. The manufactured PFA contact layer can be facilely replaced with a new one before the end of its lifetime to maintain the electrical output of the TENG, and the postused one can be fully recycled via reprocessing as the material for injection molding. Consequently, a tile-floor-based TENG is proposed as a proof-of-concept demonstration to show environmentally friendly and closed-loop production of TENGs.

Automated summary

This study presents a method to manufacture micro/nanoscale surface-structured PFA contact layers using injection molding-assisted mass production. The fabricated PFA contact layer in TENG exhibits easily replaceable and fully recyclable characteristics, while still providing high voltage and power output during solid-solid contact and separation.