Expanding the portfolio of tribo-positive materials: aniline formaldehyde condensates for high charge density triboelectric nanogenerators

Zhao, Pengfei; Soin, Navneet; Kumar, Amit; Shi, Lin; Guan, Shaoliang; Tsonos, Christos; Yu, Zidong; Ray, Sekhar Chandra; McLaughlin, James A.; Zhu, Zhigang; Zhou, Erping; Geng, Junfeng; See, Chan H.; Luo, Jikui

Abstract

The rapid uptake of energy harvesting triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for self-powered electronics requires the development of high-performance tribo-materials capable of providing large power outputs. This work reports on the synthesis and use of aniline formaldehyde resin (AFR) for energy-harvesting applications. The facile, acidic-medium reaction between aniline and formaldehyde produces the aniline-formaldehyde condensate, which upon an in-vacuo high temperature curing step provides smooth AFR films with abundant nitrogen and oxygen surface functional groups which can acquire a tribo-positive charge and thus endow AFR with a significantly higher positive tribo-polarity than the existing state-of-art polyamide-6 (PA6). A TENG comprising of optimized thin-layered AFR against a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film produced a peak-to-peak voltage of up to ~1,000 V, a current density of ~65 mA m⁻², a transferred charge density of ~200 μC m⁻² and an instantaneous power output (energy pulse) of ~11 W m⁻² (28.1 μJ cycle⁻¹), respectively. The suitability of AFR was further supported through the Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) measurements, which reveal a significantly higher average surface potential value of 1.147 V for AFR as compared to 0.87 V for PA6 and a step-by-step increase of the surface potential with the increase of energy generation cycles. The work not only proposes a novel and scalable mouldable AFR synthesis process but also expands with excellent prospects, the current portfolio of tribo-positive materials for triboelectric energy harvesting applications.

Citation

Zhao, P., Soin, N., Kumar, A., Shi, L., Guan, S., Tsonos, C., Yu, Z., Ray, S. C., McLaughlin, J. A., Zhu, Z., Zhou, E., Geng, J., See, C. H., & Luo, J. (2020). Expanding the portfolio of tribo-positive materials: aniline formaldehyde condensates for high charge density triboelectric nanogenerators. Nano Energy, 67, Article 104291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.104291

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 9, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Nov 14, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Deposit Date: Nov 12, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 15, 2020
• Journal: Nano Energy
• Print ISSN: 2211-2855
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 67
• Article Number: 104291
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2019.104291
• Keywords: Aniline formaldehyde resins; tribo-positive polymers; triboelectric nanogenerators; surface potential; KPFM
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2313427