Enhanced Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on a Hybrid Cellulose Aerogel for Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Sensing

Theporous aerogel structure and modulating surface potentialcan significantly improve the output performance of a BC-based TENGand a self-powered smart door panel was designed for the hearing-impairedto know the knocking in time. A biocompatible and porous triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG) basedon bacterial cellulose (BC) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) aerogelwas presented in this paper. Due to the higher surface roughness,lower surface potential, and highly porous structure, the output performanceof the BC-TENG was significantly boosted. The output performanceswere more than 30 times greater than that of the pure BC aerogel andmore than 4 times that of the nonporous sample with the same HEC content(80 wt %). When the BC/HEC aerogel is combined with wood panels, aself-powered smart door panel can be obtained, which can convert themechanical energy from knocking and tapping into electrical energyto light up a commercial light-emitting diode (LED) lights or generatewireless electrical signals on the mobile phone screen to help thehearing-impaired people to know knocking at the door in time. Moreover,water was used as the sole dispersant and dissolution. The advantagesof cellulose were retained to a great extent, so it can provide anew modification idea for a biobased TENG in the future. This workproposed a facial and environmentally friendly method to achieve ahighly porous cellulose-based TENG with biocompatibility, low cost,and highly enhanced output performance.