High performance flexible green triboelectric nanogenerator with polyethylene oxide/mica tribo-positive composite material

Innovating novel, green, biodegradable, and recyclable polymers are critical for the development of environmentally sustainable solutions, eliminating concerns of pollution and microplastic accumulation. Herin, this study presents remarkably enhanced tribo-positive polyethylene oxide (PEO) polarity, by incorporating for the first time, a clay inorganic filler, creating a novel biodegradable composite triboelectric material. The low-cost composite comprised a biodegradable polymeric PEO matrix, an abundant naturally sourced muscovite mica micro-platelet filler, and integrated simple material fabrication methods. A 4 cm PEO/Mica film was paired with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), generating a peak-to-peak voltage, current density, and transferred charge density of respectfully, 296 V, 24.2 mA and 110.3 µC . Reducing the film thickness to 40 µm dramatically enhanced the electrical output, resulting in a peak-to-peak voltage and instantaneous power density of respectfully, 424 V and 12.1 W . The addition of mica greatly improved the dielectric permittivity, promoting the outstanding triboelectric performance. The composite material's long-term stability and flexibility demonstrated significant advantages for self-powering small electronic systems. Furthermore, PEOs facile water solubility allowed mica separation, recovery, recyclability, and integration within new PEO/Mica films, resulted in preserved triboelectric outputs. The PEO/Mica composite delivers exceptional sustainable, recyclable, and tribo-positive attributes, serving as an excellent energy harvesting solution.