Recent Advances on Conducting Polymers Based Nanogenerators for Energy Harvesting

With the rapid growth of numerous portable electronics, it is critical to develop high-performance, lightweight, and environmentally sustainable energy generation and power supply systems. The flexible nanogenerators, including piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG) and triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG), are currently viable candidates for combination with personal devices and wireless sensors to achieve sustained energy for long-term working circumstances due to their great mechanical qualities, superior environmental adaptability, and outstanding energy-harvesting performance. Conductive materials for electrode as the critical component in nanogenerators, have been intensively investigated to optimize their performance and avoid high-cost and time-consuming manufacture processing. Recently, because of their low cost, large-scale production, simple synthesis procedures, and controlled electrical conductivity, conducting polymers (CPs) have been utilized in a wide range of scientific domains. CPs have also become increasingly significant in nanogenerators. In this review, we summarize the recent advances on CP-based PENG and TENG for biomechanical energy harvesting. A thorough overview of recent advancements and development of CP-based nanogenerators with various configurations are presented and prospects of scientific and technological challenges from performance to potential applications are discussed.