Chemically Variable Polyurethanes Prepared Using CO₂-Derived Diols as Promising Triboelectric Energy Harvesting Materials

The chemical conversion of CO 2 into valuable chemicals has attracted great attention from scientists. In this work, cyclic carbonates (CCs) with various functional groups were prepared through the chemical conversion of CO 2 with epoxides. By reacting CCs with 2-ethanolamine, carbamate diols with various functional groups (CDs) could be developed as polymer platforms. Finally, a series of polyurethanes with various functional groups (PU-CDs) were synthesized by reacting CDs with diisocyanate and were applied as triboelectric energy harvesting materials. The triboelectric performance of PU-CDs on polyethylene terephthalate fabric (PET-F) films depended on the functional groups of PU-CDs. The optimal PU-CD4/PET-F film with phenyl groups exhibited promising triboelectric performance, achieving an output peak-to-peak voltage ( V p–p ) of 352 V and a maximum power density of 18 mW/cm 2 . The triboelectric devices fabricated with PU-CD4/PET-F films demonstrated excellent durability over 30000 pressing/releasing cycles and were able to power green light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a hygrometer. Based on the synthetic strategy of this work, a greater variety of CO 2 -derived PUs can be designed and developed for the harvesting of triboelectric energy.