MXene/Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube/Polymer Hybrids for Tribopiezoelectric Nanogenerators

Wearable portable electronic devices have become an indispensable part of the modern lifestyle because of their smart, convenient, and fashionable features. Fiber-based nanogenerators are generally used as energy supply systems in wearable portable electronic devices. In the present work, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and poly(l-lactic acid) (PLLA) were used in triboelectric layers of hybrid tribopiezoelectric nanogenerators (HNGs). Two-dimensional MXenes and one-dimensional multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs-COOH) were used as conductive nanofillers introduced into electrospun nanofiber membranes. A 132-fold increase in the electrical power density of a PVDF nanofiber-based piezoelectric nanogenerator was observed under the synergistic effect of MXenes and MWCNTs-COOH. Finite-element simulations were performed to determine the optimum values of the triboelectric layer thickness and spacing for HNGs, and an MXenes/MWCNTs-COOH/PVDF-PPLA-based HNG with a power density of 18.08 W m–2 was constructed. We present a series of elaborations to demonstrate an effective way to improve the output performance of tribopiezoelectric nanogenerators. In addition, an HNGs-based wearable portable electronic device was fabricated to help humans interact with virtual reality.