The Study of Silica Fume Incorporated Calcium Silicate Nanocomposite for Mechanical Energy Harvesting Application

In this work, the effect of the incorporation of silica fume nanoparticles (SiO2) on dielectric properties and energy conversion efficiency of the calcium silicate based triboelectric nanogenerator (CS-based TENG) were investigated. SiO2 nanoparticles with 0.1-0.5%wt concentrations were added to CS-material to form CS-SiO2 nanocomposites which were then used to fabricate CS-SiO2 TENG. It was found that the CS-SiO2 0.2%wt nanocomposite had the highest dielectric constant (epsilon(r)) of 66.5, which was over 3 times higher than that of the pristine CS material (epsilon(r) = 21.3). Under a vertical contact-separation operation mode, the fabricated TENG with CS-SiO2 0.2%wt generated the highest output voltage and current of 110 V and 8.5 mu A, respectively, which can deliver the highest power density of 182 mW/m(2). The enhanced energy conversion performance of CS-SiO2 0.2%wt TENG is accounted for the addition of SiO2 nanoparticles that can promote the formation of CSH product and reduce air voids, resulting in the synergetic enhancement of dielectric constant and compressive strength of the CS-SiO2 nanocomposite material.