Influence of Pentaerythritol Core and Dimethylol Butanoic Acid Monomer-Based Aliphatic Hyperbranched Polyester on the Tribonegative Performance of Polyvinylidene Fluoride

Nowadays, the efficiency enhancement of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is a big challenge, and the one main factor in improving the output performance of TENGs is enhancing electron affinities of the tribo layers. In the present research, we investigated the effect of a hyperbranched polyester of the first generation (HBP-G1) on the tribonegativity of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) polymer. Initially, HBP-G1 was synthesized using the pentaerythritol core and dimethylol butanoic acid monomer using a facile single-step route and characterized by FTIR and NMR studies. Then, the PVDF (PA0) and its blended electrospun membranes with different weight percentages (5, 10, 15, and 20 wt % as PA5, PA10, PA15, and PA20) of HBP-G1 were fabricated using a traditional electrospinning technique. The morphological and crystalline changes of PVDF as a function of HBP-G1 were examined by using SEM, FTIR, and XRD analysis. The triboelectric performance such as open circuit potential ( V OC ) and short circuit current ( I SC ) was measured by considering as-prepared membranes as tribonegative layers and aluminum film as tribopositive frictional layers. Among the combination of PVDF/HBP-G1, the 10 wt % based TENGs (PA10/Al-TENG) exhibited a maximum V OC of 65 V (3 times that of PA0) and I SC of 1.76 μA (2 times that of PA0). The enhancement of TENG performance upon adding the HBP-G1 content to PVDF shows the significance of HBP-G1 on the triboelectric effect. Further, we demonstrated energy harvesting applications such as illuminating LEDs and powering low-power electronics (stopwatch) using PA10/Al-TENG. The proposed TENGs can be potential candidates for future self-powered wearable electronics.