A Novel Triboelectric Material Based on Deciduous Leaf for Energy Harvesting

Zhuyu Ding; Ming Zou; Peng Yao; Zhiyuan Zhu; Li Fan

doi:10.3390/mi12111314

A Novel Triboelectric Material Based on Deciduous Leaf for Energy Harvesting

Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Oct 26;12(11):1314. doi: 10.3390/mi12111314.

Authors

Zhuyu Ding¹, Ming Zou², Peng Yao², Zhiyuan Zhu^{2

3}, Li Fan²

Affiliations

¹ College of Engineering and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
² School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
³ Ocean College, Faculty of Engineering, Zhejiang University, Zhoushan 316021, China.

Abstract

Recently, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for harvesting low-frequency energy has attracted the attention of academia. However, there are few studies on environmentally friendly triboelectric materials. Here, we propose a novel triboelectric nanogenerator based on the deciduous leaf (DL-TENG) that can harvest mechanical energy from various low-frequency motions. The deciduous leaf is an environmentally friendly triboelectric material, which has a low-cost and is easy to obtain. Using it to generate electricity can achieve the effect of waste utilization. From the experimental results, the peak value of the short-circuit current (I_sc) and the open-circuit voltage (V_oc) can reach 4.2 µA and 150 V, respectively. The fabricated DL-TENG exhibits a stable high performance, with a maximum output power of 72.2 µW, to a load of 20 MΩ. Moreover, we also designed a stacked structure, DL-TENG, to enhance the electrical output. Additionally, the stacked DL-TENG could drive 15 commercial light-emitting diodes (LEDs). This design will promote the development of low-cost and environmentally friendly triboelectric material.

Keywords: environmentally friendly materials; fallen leaf; stacked TENG; triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG).