scholarly journals Moderately Transparent Chitosan-PVA Blended Membrane for Strong Mechanical Stiffness and as a Robust Bio-Material Energy Harvester Through Contact-Separation Mode TENG

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi Kumar Cheedarala ◽  
Jung Il Song

The detection of sustainable materials from naturally available resources using a simple fabrication process is highly important for novel research. Here, we used chitosan-PVA (Chs-PVA) blend films via layer-by-layer casting technologies for generating power through mechanical induction through triboelectric nanogenerators. The proposed Chs-PVA biodegradable film (i.e., thickness of 60 ± 5 μm) is facile, ecofriendly, highly flexible, mechanically strong, cost-effective, and easy to scale up. FT-IR analysis of the ChS-PVA blend membrane showed the strong interactions between the amines of ChS and hydroxyl groups of PVA through chemical cross-linking by hydrogen bonding. More importantly, the triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) values of ChS-PVA films were 3–4 orders of magnitude lower than chitosan films reported before. Layer-on-layer cast films in particular exhibited high tensile strength (15.8 ± 1 MPa) and were more than three times stronger than other polyelectrolyte multilayer films. Both types of films remained stable in an acidic environment. Furthermore, the layer-on-layer-assembled films presented greater open circuit voltage (Voc) and short circuit current (Isc) values compared to pure ChS and PVA films. The ChS-PVA membrane can be used as a functional layer to produce charges by collecting get-up-and-go through vertical contact and separation mode TENG counters to the PVDF membrane. The enhancement of Voc and Isc of ChS-PVA TENG were 244 and 1,080% from ChS TENG. Where in the case of PVA TENG, the enhancement of Voc and Isc were increased by 633 and 2,888%, respectively due to the availability of free loan pair on the -NH2 and -OH functional groups. The novel ChS-PVA TENG is a potential candidate for satisfying the tight requirement of an optimized energy harvesting device as an alternate bio-material option for contact-separation mode TENGs.

Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2191
Author(s):  
Xiaolan Wang ◽  
Xiaoping Zou ◽  
Jialin Zhu ◽  
Chunqian Zhang ◽  
Jin Cheng ◽  
...  

It is crucial to find a good material as a hole transport layer (HTL) to improve the performance of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), devices with an inverted structure. Polyethylene dioxythiophene-poly (styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) and inorganic nickel oxide (NiOx) have become hotspots in the study of hole transport materials in PSCs on account of their excellent properties. In our research, NiOx and PEDOT: PSS, two kinds of hole transport materials, were prepared and compared to study the impact of the bottom layer on the light absorption and morphology of perovskite layer. By the way, some experimental parameters are simulated by wx Analysis of Microelectronic and Photonic Structures (wxAMPS). In addition, thin interfacial layers with deep capture levels and high capture cross sections were inserted to simulate the degradation of the interface between light absorption layer and PEDOT:PSS. This work realizes the combination of experiment and simulation. Exploring the mechanism of the influence of functional layer parameters plays a vital part in the performance of devices by establishing the system design. It can be found that the perovskite film growing on NiOx has a stronger light absorption capacity, which makes the best open-circuit voltage of 0.98 V, short-circuit current density of 24.55 mA/cm2, and power conversion efficiency of 20.01%.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anika Zafiah M. Rus ◽  
Nur Munirah Abdullah ◽  
M. F. L. Abdullah

Generation from the existing commercial devices costs about ten times more than the conventional methods. Therefore, this paper presents a thin-film dyed solar cell (DSC) of natural dyes fromMelastoma malabathricumfruits which consist of the carbonyl and hydroxyl groups of anthocyanin molecule that influences the performance of photosensitized effect due to its bound on the surface of filler. Experimental results comparing engineering grade (>99% purity) of metal oxide; U1 and U2 with treated metal oxide; U3 and U4 using ultrasonic process, which is to break the particle agglomeration from 0.37 μm down to 0.15 μm; this treatment led to a more “sponge-like” consistency with high porosity, enabling enhanced absorption and anchorage of the dye sensitizer. The microstructures of metal oxide were observed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). Along with the highest performance ofI-Vmeasurement given by U4 with open circuit,Voc = 0.742 V, short circuit,Isc = 0.36 mA, fill factor, FF = 57.012 gives 0.039% efficiency the examples for the first outdoor application upon sunlight illumination of such DSC were also reported. Therefore, this ultrasonic treatment and novel dye fromMelastoma malabathricumfruit are reliable to be used for further application.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor V. Plotnikov ◽  
Anthony C. Vasko ◽  
Alvin D. Compaan ◽  
Xiangxin Liu ◽  
Kristopher A. Wieland ◽  
...  

AbstractMagnetron sputtering (MS) of CdTe and related II-VI materials facilitates low energy ion and electron bombardment that promotes good film growth at substrate temperatures well below those needed for other physical vapor deposition methods. MS also provides good control of deposition rates while allowing scale-up to large areas. In this paper we review the use of MS for deposition of polycrystalline thin films of CdS, CdTe and related materials for solar cells with a focus on reducing the thickness. We relate the deposition conditions and plasma properties determined by Langmuir probe measurements to some of the materials properties of the films through spectroscopic ellipsometry and high resolution electron microscopy. For cells with CdTe layers from 0.35 to 2.5 μm, we have done a first-order optimization of chloride treatment conditions and back contact structure. We discuss the influence of CdTe thickness and post-deposition processing on the efficiency, open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current, and fill factor and show that 10% efficient cells can be fabricated with 0.5 μm of CdTe.


Author(s):  
Robert L. Vittoe ◽  
Tung Ho ◽  
Sudhir Shrestha ◽  
Mangilal Agarwal ◽  
Kody Varahramyan

This paper presents fabrication of copper indium gallium di-selenide (CIGS) solar cells using all solution-based deposition processes. CIGS nanoparticles were synthesized through multi-step chemical process using copper chloride, indium chloride, gallium chloride, and selenium in oleyamine. CIGS thin films were constructed through layer-by-layer (LbL) self-assembly and spray-coating techniques. Chemical-bath-deposition and spray-coating methods were used for cadmium sulfide and zinc oxide film depositions, respectively. Initial thin film solar cell devices exhibited promising 0.3 mA short circuit current and 200 mV open circuit voltage. The solar cells fabricated through the all solution-based processes are cost-effective, thus, have potentials of providing a viable, renewable and sustainable energy source. The proposed processes can further be realized on flexible substrates, which may broaden the applications range for the solar cells.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ismael Domingos ◽  
Ana I. S. Neves ◽  
Monica F. Craciun ◽  
Helena Alves

A rapid development in personal electronics has raised challenging requirements for portable and sustainable power sources. For example, in wearable technologies, the concept of wearable body area network brings body motion and vital signs monitoring together in synergy. For this, a key aspect is sustainable portable energy, available anywhere, at any time, as generated by triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG). This technology usually demands high-cost processes and materials and still suffer from low power output, as well as unstable output values due to charge generating stimulus with variable intensities. In this work, we present TENGs using shear exfoliated graphene as electrodes as well as active triboelectric layer deposited by a simple solution process. Graphene in combination with polymers such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were used to produce TENG devices using low-cost solution processing methods. Device electrical power generation was tested with a cyclic physical stimulus for better control and understanding of device output. The triboelectric response of these materials showed open circuit voltages (Voc) and short-circuit currents (Isc)of approximately 233 V and 731 nA respectively when stimulated at 1.5 Hz. A power density of 13.14 μW/cm2 under a load of 200 MΩ was achieved, which can be 40 times higher when compared to devices made with aluminum and PDMS. These results demonstrate the potential of solution process for low-cost triboelectric devices for self-sustainable wearable portable nanogenerators on health and security applications using contact and positional sensors.


MRS Advances ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (22) ◽  
pp. 1235-1241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiichi Kaneto ◽  
Mao Nishikawa ◽  
Sadahito Uto

AbstractCatalytic activity of conducting polymers in biofuel cells has been studied in comparison with the performance of Pt-black (Pt-B). The cells were direct and passive type with structure of biofuel/anode catalyst/Nafion®/cathode catalyst/air. Conducting polymers of polyaniline, polypyrrole and poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT*PSS) were examined for the anode and cathode catalysts. L-ascorbic acid was used as the biofuel, and the Nafion® was served as a proton transfer membrane. In the standard Pt-B anode/Pt-B cathode cell, the typical Voc (open circuit voltage) = 0.52 V, ISC (short circuit current) = 8 mA/cm2 and the Pmax (maximum power density) of approximately 0.8 mW/cm2 were obtained. In a cell with catalysts of PEDOT*PSS anode/Pt-B cathode, Voc = 0.55 V and the maximum power density of 1.2 mW/cm2 were obtained, which were larger than that of the standard Pt-B/Pt-B cell. Polyaniline and Polypyrrole were also found to be a potential candidate for catalysts in biofuel cells.


2007 ◽  
Vol 1013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinji Onoda ◽  
Supachai Ngamsinlapasathian ◽  
Takuya Fujieda ◽  
Susumu Yoshikawa

AbstractThe photovoltaic properties of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) based on fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) and Ti substrates were investigated. The sheet resistances of the substrates were correlated to the photovoltaic properties. The efficiency of the Ti substrate based DSC was higher than that of the FTO substrate based DSC, due to a high fill factor (FF). To minimize the internal resistance of the DSCs, Ti plate was used as a support for nanocrystalline TiO2, because of its low sheet resistance. As the light was absorbed by the electrolyte layer, the incident photon to current efficiency (IPCE) values decreased in the range between 400-600 nm. The electrolyte concentrations were optimized to obtain a higher cell performance. When using an electrolyte composed of 0.02 M I2, 0.2 M LiI, and 0.5 M 4-tert-butylpyridine, an efficiency of 4.98% was obtained for the Ti substrate based DSC with a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 11.25 mAcm-2, an open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.692 V, and a FF of 0.639. The effect of the cell size on the photovoltaic properties was also investigated. The rate of decrease in a FF and efficiency with increase in the cell size was lower for the Ti substrate based DSCs than the FTO substrate based DSCs. This result indicates that Ti plate is a potential candidate for production of large DSCs.


Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 4156
Author(s):  
Habtamu Gebeyehu Menge ◽  
Jin Ok Kim ◽  
Yong Tae Park

Recently, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been widely utilized to address the energy demand of portable electronic devices by harvesting electrical energy from human activities or immediate surroundings. To increase the surface charge and surface area of negative TENGs, previous studies suggested several approaches such as micro-patterned arrays, porous structures, multilayer alignment, ion injections, ground systems and mixing of high dielectric constant materials. However, the preparation processes of these nanocomposite TENGs have been found to be complex and expensive. In this work, we report a simple, efficient and inexpensive modification of poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) using graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) fillers and a Na2CO3 template. This GNP-PDMS was chemically bonded using 3-aminopropylethoxysilane (APTES) as a linker with an electrode multilayer made by layer-by-layer deposition of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and poly(4-styrene-sulfonic acid) (PSS)-stabilized GNP (denoted as [PVA/GNP-PSS]n). A 33 wt.% Na2CO3 and 0.5 wt.% of GNP into a PDMS-based TENG gives an open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current density of up to ~270.2 V and ~0.44 μA/cm2, which are ~8.7 and ~3.5 times higher than those of the pristine PDMS, respectively. The higher output performance is due to (1) the improved surface charge density, 54.49 μC/m2, from oxygen functional moieties of GNP, (2) high surface roughness of the composite film, ~0.399 μm, which also increased the effective contact area, and (3) reduced charge leakage from chemical bonding of GNP-PDMS and [PVA/GNP-PSS]3 via APTES. The proposed TENG fabrication process could be useful for the development of other high-performance TENGs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ravi Kumar Cheedarala

The power demand is increasing day by day owing to the diminishing of fossil fuel reserves on the globe. To overcome the future energy crises, there is a strong need to fulfill the energy loophole by novel technologies such as triboelectric nanogenerators to harvest miniature resources from renewable natural resources. Here, I discussed the synthesis and fabrication of novel triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using highly reproducible power generators as electropositive surfaces from the monomers of naphthalene tetracarboxylic dianhydride, benzdiene diamine, and sulfonated polyimide (Bno-Spi), and modified nonwoven carbon fibers (Wcf) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and polyvinylidene difluoride (PVDF) as electronegative TENG electrodes, respectively. Here, novel double characteristic hydrophilic and hydrophobic nano-channels concerned with Bno-Spi films were proposed through contact electrification process through ion and electron transfer by an electron-donor-acceptor complex mechanism. The proposed Bno-Spi-TENG system High triboelectric open circuit voltage 75 V (Voc) and short circuit current 1 μA (Jsc) have been achieved from Bno-Spi-TENGs, in particular, and for SO3H.Bno-Spi-TENG at 6 Hz. Besides that, we used improved knitted woven carbon fiber composite (wcf-COOH), as one of the TENGs to generate a greater open-circuit voltage (Voc), and short circuit current (Isc). Also, I aimed the contact and separation mode TENG which is using spring structure through oxidation of Wcf into Wcf-COOH followed by coupling of aniline through and one-step oxidative polymerization to get woven carbon fiber-polyaniline emraldine salt (Wcf-Pani.Es). The Wcf-PANI.Es composite film (thickness ~ 100 nm) shows the surface resistivity of 0.324 Ω m, and functions as a rubbing surface to produce charges through harvesting of energy using vertical contact-separation mode TENG. The vibrant exchanges of novel Wcf-Pani.Es, and PVDF membrane produced higher Voc of 95 V, and Isc of 180 μA, correspondingly. In specific, Wcf-Pani.Es -TENG is shown an enhancement of 498% of Voc concerning Wcf-COOH-TENG due to the availability of the Pani.Es layer. The novel Bno-Spi-TENGs and Wcf-Pani.Es are the potential candidates for fulfilling the need for improved energy harvesting devices as an alternate substantial choice for contact-separation mode TENGs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoseop Shin ◽  
Sungjun Cho ◽  
Sejin Han ◽  
Gun Young Jung

AbstractTriboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are actively being researched and developed to become a new external power unit for various electronics and applications. Wind is proposed as a mechanical energy source to flutter the dielectric film in wind-driven TENGs as it is clean, abundant, ubiquitous, and sustainable. Herein, we propose a TENG structure with dielectric films bent in four directions to collect the wind energy supply from all directions, unlike the conventional wind-driven TENGs which can only harvest the wind energy from one direction. Aluminum (Al) layer was intercalated within the dielectric film to improve electrostatic induction, resulting in improved triboelectric performances. Maximum open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 233 V, short-circuit current (Isc) of 348 µA, and output power density of 46.1 W m− 2 at an external load of 1 MΩ under a wind speed of 9 m s− 1 were revealed, and it faithfully lit “LED” characters composed of 25 LEDs.


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