Flexible nanofiber based triboelectric nanogenerators with high power conversion

Abstract Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) convert small mechanical movements into electrical energy based on electrostatic principles. Nowadays, the energy efficiency of TENGs is low and needs to be increased for use in self-powered electronic devices. The energy efficiency can be enhanced by developing new dielectric materials with higher electrical charge capacity. In this study, PAN/ZnO and PAN/B(OH)3 flexible nanofibers as a triboelectric contact layer are fabricated for the first time to improve the power production performance of polyacrylonitrile (PAN). In the experiments, PAN/ZnO and PAN/B(OH)3 were used as tribopositive dielectric and polyvinyl butyral (PVB) was used as a tribonegative dielectric of TENGs. According to the results, the power density of TENGs changes with dielectric material sizes and load conditions. The peak power density of 3 × 3 cm PAN/B(OH)3 reaches 6.67 Wm-2 when the load is 33 MΩ. Since, the solution-based synthesized ZnO has limited crystallinity, no favorable effect was observed on the power production performance of PAN. The results demonstrated that facile and low-cost fabrication method in accordance with the new TENGs design shed light on a new route for the enhancement of high-performance TENGs. In addition, the fabricated PAN-based nanofibrous structures can be beneficial for the improvement of advanced triboelectric technology.