Electrospun vanadium oxide hollow nanofibers based supercapacitor inspired triboelectric nanogenerator as self-powered visible-blind ultraviolet photodetector
Nishat Kumar Das, Om Priya Nanda, Sushmee Badhulika
Abstract
Self-powered visible-blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors have emerged as sustainable alternatives in various sectors, including security, surveillance, and environmental monitoring. So, we report a vanadium oxide (V 2 O 5 ) hollow nanofibers-based supercapacitor-inspired triboelectric nanogenerator (STENG) as a self-powered visible-blind UV photodetector. A novel designed STENG is fabricated using electrospun V 2 O 5 hollow nanofibers-based coated on indium tin oxide coated polyethylene terephthalate sheet (ITO/PET) on top side and a layer of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) & sulphuric acid over multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) coated graphite sheet on bottom side. The optimized STENG demonstrates 34 V peak-to-peak open circuit voltage (Voc) and 2 μA of peak-to-peak short circuit current (Isc) by applying force via finger tapping . However, STENG's performance improves significantly to deliver 280 V Voc (peak-to-peak), and 6 μA Isc (peak-to-peak) with 0.49 W/m 2 power density at 100 MΩ load resistance due to electrochemical charging. The output voltage of the STENG increases by 400 % under UV light , which refers to the excellent performance of STENG as a self-powered visible-blind UV photodetector with 266 V/W responsivity at 2.5 mW/cm 2 intensity. Hence, the as-fabricated V 2 O 5 hollow nanofibers-based STENG not only paves the way to fabricate a high-performance energy harvester , but can also be used as a self-powered UV-photodetector.