Achieving Ultrahigh Effective Surface Charge Density of Direct‐Current Triboelectric Nanogenerator in High Humidity

Abstract

As an emerging energy‐harvesting technology, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is considered a powerful driving force toward the new‐era of Internet of Things and artificial intelligence, but its output performance is dramatically influenced by environmental humidity. Herein, a direct current TENG (DC‐TENG) based on the triboelectrification effect and electrostatic breakdown is reported to address the problem of output attenuation in high humidity environments for the conventional TENGs. It is found that high humidity not only enhances the sliding triboelectrification effect of hydrophobic triboelectric materials, but also promotes the electrostatic breakdown process for DC‐TENG, thus contributing to the improvement of DC‐TENG output. Furthermore, taking poly(vinyl chloride) film as the friction layer, the effective surface charge density of DC‐TENG with microstructure‐designed electrode achieves a milestone value of ≈2.97 mC m−2 under 90% relative humidity, which is almost 1.42‐fold larger than that under 30% RH. This work not only establishes an effective methodology to boost the output performance of TENG in a high humidity environment, but also establishes a foundation for its practical applications in large‐scale energy harvesting.

A humidity-enhanced silicon-based semiconductor tribovoltaic direct-current nanogenerator

“…[34][35][36] The direct-current TENG using the principle of electrostatic breakdown can also maintain a good output in the high-humidity environment. 37,38 Although the above methods can effectively alleviate the problem of charge dissipation in high-humidity environments, it is still difficult to break through the limit of transferred charge density due to the inherent limitation of surface electrostatic charges for insulator materials. On the other hand, the tribovoltaic effect which transitions the study of the TENG from insulators to semiconductor materials could utilize the interface friction on the semiconductor interface to generate direct current.…”

Design of DC-Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Energy Harvesting

“…The technique utilizes an excitation circuit to realize the directional accumulation of charge and provides a more effective method for modifying dielectric materials. Environment factor is also considered in achieving effective surface charge density of DC-TENG as mentioned by (Liu et al, 2022). It is found that high humidity not only enhances the sliding triboelectrification effect of triboelectric materials but also improves the DC-TENG output.…”

High Performance Porous Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Silk Fibroin@MXene Composite Aerogel and PDMS Sponge

“…In friction layers with a porous structure, the presence of interior pores provides an additional surface area, which significantly enhances the surface charge density. This accumulation of charge on the porous surface has the potential to improve the output performance of a TENG. − We measured the specific surface area of SF@MXene-A at different MXene concentrations by using the Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area detection method. Figure d shows the specific surface area of pristine SF and the SF@MXene composite with MXene concentrations of 40%, 50%, and 60%.…”