High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on a Mechanoradical Mechanism

Flexible nanogenerators (NGs) with high power output and high efficiency have attracted extensive interests in recent years. Herein, we report highly efficient, mechanoradical-based NGs based on porous carboxymethyl cellulose/poly(butyl acrylate and butyl methacrylate) (CMC/P(BA-BMA)) composite aerogel film. An open circuit voltage (V-oc) of 31 V and a short circuit current (I) of 10 A were achieved under a periodic stress of 0.08 MPa at 10 Hz. Meanwhile, the calculated power density was up to 3308 W m(-3), which can power 11 blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs). A potential mechanism was proposed wherein the mechanoradical is generated during bond breaking of P(BA-BMA) which would lead to large number of transient dipole moments, and permanent electric dipole moments are generated by mechanoradical-induced polar groups. As a result, a potential difference would be formed between the bottom and top surface of CMC/P(BA-BMA) porous aerogel film. The finding and the proposed concept may open a new avenue to design mechanoradical-based NGs in specific applications.