MXene/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Hybrids for Tribopiezoelectric Nanogenerators
Xuan Li, Wei Wang, Wenhua Cai, Hao Liu, Haihui Liu, Na Han, Xingxiang Zhang
Abstract
Wearable portable electronic devices have become an indispensable part of the modern lifestyle because of their smart, convenient, and fashionable features. Fiber-based nanogenerators are generally used as energy supply systems in wearable portable electronic devices. In the present work, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) were used in triboelectric layers of hybrid tribopiezoelectric nanogenerators (HNGs). Two-dimensional MXenes and one-dimensional multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-COOH) were used as conductive nanofillers introduced into electrospun nanofiber membranes. A 132-fold increase in the electrical power density of a PVDF nanofiber-based piezoelectric nanogenerator was observed under the synergistic effect of MXenes and MWCNTs-COOH. Finite-element simulations were performed to determine the optimum values of the triboelectric layer thickness and spacing for HNGs, and an MXenes/MWCNTs-COOH/PVDF-PPLA-based HNG with a power density of 18.08 W m–2 was constructed. We present a series of elaborations to demonstrate an effective way to improve the output performance of tribopiezoelectric nanogenerators. In addition, an HNGs-based wearable portable electronic device was fabricated to help humans interact with virtual reality.