Enhanced performance triboelectric nanogenerators based on solid polymer electrolytes with different concentrations of cations

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), as a promising energy harvesting technology, have attracted considerable attention and various approaches have been developed to improve their output performance. An innovative strategy was proposed recently by using solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) with asymmetric pairing ions as the friction layer, showing excellent potential to achieve high-performance TENGs. However, it is far from clear what are the effects of SPE on TENG performance as only one electrolyte, CaCl2, was used for the investigation. Herein, PTFE/PVA-MClx TENGs based on SPEs with different types of electrolytes, including LiCl, ZnCl2, CaCl2, FeCl3, and AlCl3, were fabricated and their performances were investigated. All the devices demonstrated superior output performance than that of the control PTFE/PVA TENG. Specifically, the PTFE/PVA-LiCl TENG exhibited remarkably enhanced triboelectric performance with an output voltage of ~1345 V, a short-circuit current density of ~260 mA m−2 and a maximum power density of ~83 W m−2, four times higher than that of the control PTFE/PVA TENG. Detailed investigations revealed that in combination with improved triboelectric property, the enhanced interaction of SPEs with opposite triboelectric layers further significantly boost the triboelectric outputs. This work presents a new method to increase the interaction between triboelectric layers to effectively improve the outputs of TENGs, and to facilitate the development of high performance TENGs.