2-D self-healable polyaniline-polypyrrole nanoflakes based triboelectric nanogenerator for self-powered solar light...

This work demonstrates an easy and cost-effective synthesis of PANI-PPY conducting nanoflakes (NFs) with a self-healing capability. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis shows the minimum width of NFs as 30 nm, while HRTEM analysis confirms the shape, size, and semi-crystalline nature of the polymer. These PANI-PPY NFs were used to fabricate a contact separation mode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based self-powered photosensor which gave the maximum output voltage (149 V), maximum output current (16 µA), current density 0.56 µAcm^-2_, and power density 83.56 µWcm^-2. Detailed literature survey shows the comparative study of PANI-PPY NF's with other photo-sensing materials. This literature review highlights the tremendous ability of PANI-PPY to self-restore and ultra-fast self-powering nature. This work also demonstrates a very easy and cost-effective method to develop polymeric nanomaterials via temperature-assisted polymerization, which need only a stirrer with a hot plate. Theoretical analysis (DFT calculations using Gaussian 09 and Gauss view 05) shows a consistent increase in stability when the number of molecules in the polymer chains analyzed was increased. The developed self-healing triboelectric nanogenerators exhibited stable performance before and after healing.