Creating Ultrahigh and Long‐Persistent Triboelectric Charge Density on Weak Polar Polymer via Quenching Polarization

• Published in: Advanced functional materials 2023-08, Vol.33 (34), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Liu, Zhaoqi, Huang, Yun‐zhi, Shi, Yuxiang, Tao, Xinglin, Yang, Peng, Dong, Xuanyi, Hu, Jun, Huang, Zhao‐Xia, Chen, Xiangyu, Qu, Jin‐Ping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Charge density; Chlorotrifluoroethylene; Crystallization; Dipoles; Ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene copolymers; Grain refinement; long‐persistent; Materials science; Nanogenerators; Polarization; Polymers; Quenching; quenching polarization; solid‐liquid interfaces; triboelectric nanogenerators
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202302164

To achieve high charge density for the triboelectric polymer is a crucial task for fabricating triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). This work has developed a quenching polarization (QP) method to create ultrahigh and long‐persistent triboelectric charge on the triboelectric polymer with weak dipole polarity. The Ethylene chlorotrifluoroethylene copolymer (ECTFE) film can reach a charge density of 391 µC m−2 in the vertical contact mode by using this QP treatment, which is 200% higher than the result achieved by the most widely used method of corona polarization. The mechanism of the improvement through QP on the triboelectric properties is studied on the basis of the polarization induced grain refinement and interfacial trapping. The QP‐treated ECTFE can maintain ultra‐high charge density for both solid‐solid and solid‐liquid TENG. More interestingly, the charge induced by QP treatment is so persistent that it produces a recoverable discharging phenomenon for solid‐liquid TENG, which has never been observed before. This QP method provides a different approach for fabricating high‐performance triboelectric materials, while the QP‐induced changes in crystallization and tribo‐charge density can help to complete the physical understanding of the electrification mechanism of triboelectric polymer. A quenching polarization method is developed to create ultrahigh and long‐persistent triboelectric charge on weak polar triboelectric polymer. This method refines the grains of ECTFE through the drastic change of temperature under the externally applied electric field and increases interfaces between the crystalline and amorphous regions, which induce a large amount of interfacial deep traps for charges storage.