Friction-Dominated Carrier Excitation and Transport Mechanism for GaN-Based Direct-Current Triboelectric Nanogenerators

The semiconductor triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on the tribovoltaic effect has the characteristics of direct current and high current density, but the energy transfer and conversion mechanism is not completely clear. Here, a series of gallium nitride (GaN)-based semiconductor direct-current TENGs (SDC-TENGs) are investigated for clarifying the carrier excitation and transport mechanism. During the friction process, the external output current always flows from GaN to silicon or aluminum, regardless of the direction of the built-in electric field, because of the semiconductor types. These results reveal that the carrier transport direction is dominated by the interfacial electric field formed by triboelectrification, which is also verified under different bias voltages. Moreover, the characteristics dependent on the frictional force have been systematically investigated under different normal forces and frictional modes. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of SDC-TENG are both increased with a larger frictional force, which shows that the more severe friction results in both a larger interface electric field and more excited carriers. The maximum voltage can reach 25 V for lighting up a series of LEDs, which is enhanced by four times compared to the cutting-edge reported SDC-TENGs. This work has clarified the friction-dominated carrier excitation and transport mechanism for the tribovoltaic effect, which demonstrates the great potential of semiconductor materials for frictional energy recovery and utilization.