Highly stretchable hydroxyapatite bionanocomposite for high-performance triboelectric nanogenerators

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Renewable Energy

Background:

• Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) convert mechanical energy to electricity but face limitations with biological materials.
• Existing bionanocomposites suffer from high costs, complex synthesis, poor stability, and low output.
• Hydroxyapatite (HA), a biocompatible and strong material derived from waste, presents a potential solution.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel hydroxyapatite (HA) loaded polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) bionanocomposite for TENG applications.
• To overcome the limitations of current TENGs by utilizing HA's properties for enhanced energy harvesting.
• To explore the potential of HA/PDMS-TENGs for biomechanical energy harvesting in wearable devices.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a negative triboelectric bionanocomposite by loading varying amounts of HA into PDMS.
• Characterization of the HA/PDMS-TENG's electrical output (voltage, current, surface charge density, power density) under mechanical stress.
• Assessment of the TENG's stability over 20,000 cycles and evaluation of its mechanical properties, including stretchability.

Main Results:

• The HA/PDMS-TENG demonstrated significantly improved output performance, with voltage, current, and power density increases of 6, 9, and 10 times, respectively, compared to pure PDMS.
• The optimized TENG achieved a stable output of 300 V, 22.4 μA, 90.36 μC m^-2, and 27.34 W m^-2, attributed to a surface potential of 1512 mV.
• The HA/PDMS bionanocomposite exhibited exceptional cycle stability (>20,000 cycles) and remarkable stretchability (>290%), enhancing mechanical properties.

Conclusions:

• The developed HA/PDMS-TENG effectively harnesses biomechanical energy, offering a promising solution for self-powered wearable devices.
• The bionanocomposite's enhanced performance, stability, and stretchability pave the way for large-scale production and deployment.
• This technology enables the charging of capacitors, powering LEDs, and operating low-power electronics, advancing self-powered sensing applications.