Flexible electrostatic nanogenerator using graphene oxide film

Recently, graphene oxide (GO) super capacitors with ultra-high energy densities have received significant attention. In addition to their use in energy storage, GO capacitors might also have broad applications in renewable energy engineering, such as energy harvesting. Here, a flexible nanogenerator based on GO film is designed. A multilayer structure Al/PI/GO/PI/ITO is made on a flexible PET substrate. The GO nanogenerator could generate a peak voltage of 2 V with a current of 30 nA upon the repetitive application of a 15 N force with a frequency of 1 Hz. Moreover, the output voltage was increased to 34.4 V upon increasing the frequency of force application to 10 Hz. Compared with control samples, embedding GO film with a release structure into the device could significantly enhance the output voltage from 0.1 V to 2.0 V. The mechanism of our nanogenerator can be explained by an electrostatic effect, which is fundamentally different from that of previously reported piezoelectric and triboelectric generators. In this manuscript, we demonstrate flexible nanogenerators with large-area graphene based materials, which may open up new avenues of research with regard to applications in energy harvesting.