Impact of Pentaerythritol (Core), Dimethylol Butanoic Acid (Monomer) Based Second Generation Aliphatic Hyperbranched Polymer on the Tribonegative Performance of Polyvinylidene Fluoride

Abstract The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is an eminent technology and has become a promising solution for the existing energy crises. Several methods are investigated to enhance the TENG output performance. Herein, a novel pentaerythritol (core) and dimethylol butanoic acid (monomer)‐based hyperbranched polymer of second generation (HBP‐G2) is fabricated by facile single‐step polycondensation technique. Further, different weight percentages (5, 10, 15, and 20 wt%) of HBP‐G2‐blended polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)‐based nanofibers (NFs) are prepared using the traditional electrospinning technique. The prepared HBP‐G2 and the electrospun NFs are characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM)/energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier‐transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X‐ray diffraction (XRD)light emitting diodes studies. The effect of HBP‐G2 on the triboelectric performance of PVDF is evaluated in terms of open circuit potential (V_oc) and short circuit current (I_sc) using aluminium as the counter electrode. Among all, the 20 wt% of PVDF/HBP‐G2 shows the superior performance of V_oc of 241 V (ten times of neat PVDF NF) and I_sc of 5.3 µA (six times of neat PVDF NF). The optimized 20 wt% TENG device (PVDF/G2‐PA‐20) exhibits a peak power density of 0.17 Wm⁻² at an applied load resistance of 100 MΩ. Finally, the real‐time feasibility of the proposed TENG is successfully demonstrated to harvest mechanical energy such as operating calculators and lightning 36 light emitting diodes (LEDs)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.02.087.