Controlling the Output Performance of Triboelectric Nanogenerator Through Filling Isostructural Metal–Organic Frameworks With Varying Functional Groups

Abstract Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are recently used in triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) to enhance output performance. Although functional groups tremendously influence the output performance of TENG, the effect of functional groups for MOFs on the output performance is yet not systematically studied. In this paper, polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite TENG is designed based on isostructural UiO‐66‐R (R = H, NH₂, NO₂, and Br) family filler, and the effect of filler with various functional groups on the output performance of the TENG is first systematically studied. All the composites TENG harvest a higher output performance than the pure PDMS TENG. The TENG follows an output performance trend of PDMS@UiO‐66‐NO₂ > PDMS@UiO‐66‐Br > PDMS@UiO‐66 > PDMS@UiO‐66‐NH₂ > PDMS. The PDMS@UiO‐66‐NO₂ TENG exhibits an open‐circuit voltage of ≈191 V and a current of ≈17.3 µA, which are 3.6 times and 4.25 times over that of the PDMS TENG. The working mechanism of the composite TENG is discussed in detail through experimental analysis. This work first proves a novel strategy to improve the output performance by functionalized filler MOFs with large electron‐withdrawing functional groups, and guides us on how to choose high‐efficiency triboelectric filler.