Tribotronic Phototransistor for Enhanced Photodetection and Hybrid Energy Harvesting

Tribotronics is a new field developed by coupling triboelectricity and semiconductor, which can drive triboelectric-charge-controlled optoelectronic devices by further introducing optoelectronics. In this paper, a tribotronic phototransistor (TPT) is proposed by coupling a field-effect phototransistor and a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), in which the contact-induced inner gate voltage by the mobile frictional layer is used for modulating the photodetection characteristics of the TPT. Based on the TPT, alternatively, a coupled energy-harvester (CEH) is fabricated for simultaneously scavenging solar and wind energies, in which the output voltage on the external resistance from the wind driven TENG is used as the gate voltage of the TPT for enhancing the solar energy conversion. As the wind speed increases, the photovoltaic characteristics of the CEH including the short-circuit current, open-circuit voltage, and maximal output power have been greatly enhanced. This work has greatly expanded the functionality of tribotronics in photodetection and energy harvesting, and provided a potential solution for highly efficient harvesting and utilizing multitype energy.