Robust Triboelectric Generators by All-In-One Commercial Rubbers

Stretchable piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs), as well as triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), have become the topic of interest of many scientists for sustainable power generation and power supply to flexible electronics. A piezoelectric composite material can be tailored to develop stretchable PENGs. However, the generated output performance in most of the cases is found to be unsatisfactory because of the low performance. On the other hand, use of flexible elastomeric materials for TENG fabrication is very desirable as this kind of mechanically robust elastomeric material could offer a long service life over hundred million of cyclic operations. In this present work, a high-performance stretchable TENG has been developed comprising 100% amorphous commercial rubbers. The active components of the generator have been prepared following the conventional rubber-processing method—solid-state mixing and vulcanization. Furthermore, the incorporation of functional fillers such as conducting carbon black, precipitated silica, and graphene nanoplatelets into the rubber matrix and modification of the surface microstructure of the active rubber component allow us to improve the output performance of the triboelectric generators. Finally, flexible rubber-based TENG for tire application is demonstrated.