Abstract
Flexible piezoelectric nanogenerators for energy harvesting are getting more and more attention nowadays by converting the mechanical energy to electric energy. Here, an environment-friendly piezoelectric nanogenerator based on the regenerated cellulose (RC)/MoS2 nanosheet nanocomposite successfully exhibited a relative high output voltage of 2 V and current of 150 nA under slight press which were 5 and 7.5 times higher than those of the neat RC film, i.e. 0.4 V and 20 nA, respectively. In particular, the MoS2 nanosheets were obtained through a simple, facile and low-cost pathway by mechanical exfoliation in triethanolamine. The nanocomposite film with MoS2 nanosheet content of 4% exhibited a high piezoelectric constant (d33) of 19 pC/N, which was 6.3 times higher than that of the neat RC film (i.e. 3 pC/N). Thus, the RC/MoS2 piezoelectric nanogenerator has great potential applications in the fields of energy harvester, sensors and is of great significance to environment protection.