Liquid-solid triboelectric nanogenerators for a wide operation window based on slippery lubricant-infused surfaces (SLIPS)

Zhixiang Chen, Yi Lu, Rui Li, Orlando J. Rojas, Rogerio Manica, Qingxia Liu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) have emerged as suitable devices that are suitable to harvest widely abundant and renewable blue energy. However, a major drawback in related deployments include the reliability of the system when operating in variable atmospheric conditions. To address this limitation, we propose the integration of slippery lubricant-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) as key TENG component. For instance, we combine SLIPS with transistor-inspired architectures to develop a robust single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (SLIPS-SE-TENG) that is shown to operate effectively under extreme temperature and humidity. For this purpose, we use the energy of water droplets (as in rain) impacting a surface to generate the electrical energy output. Our theoretical calculations and atomic force microscopy measurements show that a small volume of lubricant per surface area (4 μL/ per cm2 of porous PTFE) is sufficient to produce a low water contact angle hysteresis, leading to efficient energy conversion, provided the droplet's moving velocity on the surface surpasses a threshold (0.3 mm/s). As such, we demonstrate SLIPS-SE-TENG to generate an instantaneous short-circuit current of 3 μA (charge density 8.8 nC/cm2). Importantly, we address the limitations of TENG fabricated with traditional superhydrophobic surfaces, affording a device that works normally and stably in harsh environments, under freezing temperatures or high humidity.

Original languageEnglish
Article number135688
Number of pages10
JournalChemical Engineering Journal
Volume439
Early online date12 Mar 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2022
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Harsh environment
  • Slippery interface
  • Transistor-inspired architecture
  • Triboelectric nanogenerator
  • Water droplet

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