A self-powered triboelectric nanogenerator for energy collection based on polydimethylsiloxane/dopamine/Ag nanowires porous materials formed by manganese carbonate

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) possess significant potential and offer a wide range of applications to harness low frequency micro energy from the environment. However, TENG faces challenges related to the weak tightness of bipolar materials, low charge density, and so on. In this paper, we present a novel TENG, utilizing a 0.1 mm thick nylon film as the positive electrode material and a porous material composed of PDMS/MnCO3 modified by dopamine (PDA) and Ag NWs as the negative electrode material. The sacrificial material, MnCO3, was employed to create dense internal pores within the substrate material, PDMS, resulting in a highly porous PDMS (PPDMS) substrate. The triboelectric layer of TENG resembles a sponge with 20–40 μm pores, filling the PPDMS with high dielectric constant silver nanowires (Ag NWs) effectively enhances surface charge on the triboelectric material, leading to improved output performance. The modified TENG, based on PDMS/PDA/Ag NWs (PPA) achieves an 80 V open circuit voltage, 70.4 mW/m2 effective output power density, and sustains 10,000 contact separations without damage. Finally, energy collection devices for ocean-ball and human walking scenarios with the PPA/nylon-based TENG are designed and fabricated. The PPA/nylon-based TENG exhibits promising potential for collecting, converting, and storing clean energy.