Waste Plastic Triboelectric Nanogenerators Using Recycled Plastic Bags for Power Generation

Tens of thousands of plastics produced by people have caused incalculable harm to the environment. At the same time, the consumption of energy is becoming more and more serious, and the use of fossil energy to generate electricity has caused further damage to the environment. It is a good way to recycle waste plastics and make energy collection and generation devices based on them. Here, a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based entirely on waste plastic bags is proposed. Three types of TENGs, PA-PVC-TENG, PA-PE-TENG, and PVC-PE-TENG, were fabricated by selecting the most common PA, PVC, and PE plastic films as the triboelectric layer. The output performance was improved by gilding the back of the plastic films as a conductive electrode. Under different conditions, three different types of TENGs were tested. The PA-PVC-TENG was found to show the best output performance with an open-circuit voltage of 35.7 V, a short-circuit current of 5.85 μA, and a maximum output power density of 152.6 mW/m². After further integration with supercapacitors, the integrated system can drive multiple commercial LEDs, and it can be used as an antitheft device to achieve early warning. This study realizes the integration of a TENG and energy storage devices, and as a TENG is based entirely on waste plastic bags, it not only realizes the recycling of plastics but also further realizes power generation, which can alleviate energy consumption to some extent.