Enhanced Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on a Hybrid Cellulose Aerogel for Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Sensing

Abstract

A biocompatible and porous triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on bacterial cellulose (BC) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) aerogel was presented in this paper. Due to the higher surface roughness, lower surface potential, and highly porous structure, the output performance of the BC-TENG was significantly boosted. The output performances were more than 30 times greater than that of the pure BC aerogel and more than 4 times that of the nonporous sample with the same HEC content (80 wt %). When the BC/HEC aerogel is combined with wood panels, a self-powered smart door panel can be obtained, which can convert the mechanical energy from knocking and tapping into electrical energy to light up a commercial light-emitting diode (LED) lights or generate wireless electrical signals on the mobile phone screen to help the hearing-impaired people to know knocking at the door in time. Moreover, water was used as the sole dispersant and dissolution. The advantages of cellulose were retained to a great extent, so it can provide a new modification idea for a biobased TENG in the future. This work proposed a facial and environmentally friendly method to achieve a highly porous cellulose-based TENG with biocompatibility, low cost, and highly enhanced output performance.