Development of Turbocharging-Ability Hybrid Nanogenerators Comprising Bipolar PVDF-HFP/MXene Electrospun Composites

Abstract

Coupling piezo-active and triboelectric materials has recently emerged as an effective technique for developing high-performance hybrid nanogenerators (HNGs). This is the first paper to report the fabrication of piezo-active poly(vinylidene fluoride-hexafluoropropylene)(PVDF-HFP)/MXene-based hybrid composite fibers through conventional electrospinning. Here, the effect of MXene content (1-5%) on the surface potential and electrical performance of the as-synthesized composites is investigated and optimized. PVDF-HFP/3% MXene (PHM3)/Nylon 12+A-rGo (NY2)-HNG, which contains the best-performing composite (PMH3; containing 3% of MXene), exhibits turbocharging properties (charging a 10 µF capacitor with 16 V within 100 s) and can continuously operate low-power electronics. Interestingly, PHM3 (with a negative surface potential) is transformed into PPHM3 (with a positive surface potential of +2190 V) via corona poling. This study proposes a new class of HNGs containing frictional layers comprising bipolar PVDF-HFP/3% MXene composites (PHM3/PPHM3-HNG) with an excellent output performance of 297 V and 5.1 µA that exhibit broad application prospects in energy harvesting.

Keywords: MXene, poly(vinylidene fluoride‐hexafluoropropylene); bipolar; corona poling; hybrid nanogenerators.