The present study reports the origin of surface charge on the polymer surface upon triboelectrification and is a step forward towards the development of next generation of mechanical energy harvesting systems.
It was recently reported that more efficient triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)-like devices can be prepared using inversely polarized ferroelectric films made of same material as the contacting layers. In the present work, a clear correlation between the piezoelectric response of inversely polarized ferroelectric PVDF/ BaTiO 3 nanocomposite films and the performance of the TENG-like device based on these films is demonstrated. This observation is explained by magnified electrostatic induction that is driven by piezoelectric charges and ferroelectric properties of these films. A double capacitor model is proposed that effectively portrays the interactions between ferroelectric layers during contact−separation and subsequent charge redistributions in the external circuit. The new understanding has allowed the result of 3-fold higher open circuit voltages (2.7 kV from 5 cm 2) as compared to that of a state of the art TENG. Furthermore, findings uncover the potential for vast improvement in the field of nanogenerators for mechanical energy harvesting as a significantly better piezoelectric performance of flexible nanogenerators has been reported elsewhere.
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