High-performance flexible triboelectric nanogenerator based on porous aerogels and electrospun nanofibers for energy harvesting and sensitive self-powered sensing

A novel triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on highly porous aerogel and nanofibrous mats was developed. Significant output performance improvement was achieved by introducing polyethylenimine to cellulose nanofibril aerogel and increasing polyvinylidene fluoride nanofiber mat layers. Remarkably, 18-fold and 97-fold enhancements of output voltage and power density, respectively, were realized with proper modification and layer thickness. The novel TENG not only showed excellent energy harvesting performance, but also exhibited superior sensitivity in detecting light forces when used as self-powered sensors.375