Bioproducts Engineered from Lignocelluloses: from plants and upcycling to next generation materials

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Regenerated cellulose properties tailored for optimized triboelectric output and the effect of counter-tribolayers

Publication . Dahlström, Christina; Eivazi, Alireza; Nejström, Malin; Zhang, Renyun; Pettersson, Torbjörn; Iftikhar, Haider; Rojas, Orlando J.; Medronho, Bruno; Norgren, Magnus

Cellulose has shown great potential in the development of green triboelectric nanogenerators. Particularly, regenerated cellulose (R-cellulose) has shown remarkably high output power density but the structural features and key parameters that explain such superior performance remain unexplored. In this work, wood cellulose fibers were dissolved in a LiOH(aq)-based solvent to produce a series of R-cellulose films. Regeneration in different alcohols (from methanol to n-pentanol) was performed and the films' structural features and triboelectric performance were assessed. Nonsolvents of increased hydrophobicity led to R-cellulose films with a more pronounced (1-10) diffraction peak. An open-circuit voltage (VOC) of up to ca. 260 V and a short-circuit current (ISC) of up to ca. 150 mu A were measured for R-cellulose against polytetrafluoroethylene (as negative counter-layer). However, R-cellulose showed an increased VOC of 175% (from 88.1 V) against polydimethylsiloxane when increasing the alcohol hydrocarbon chain length from methanol to n-pentanol. The corresponding ISC and output power also increased by 76% (from 89.9 mu A) and by 382% (from 8.8 W m-2), respectively. The higher R-cellulose hydrophilicity, combined with soft counter-tribolayer that follow the surface structures increasing the effective contact area, are the leading reasons for a superior triboelectric performance.

2024-02Journal article

Open access

Funding agency

European Commission

Funding programme

H2020

Funding Award Number

788489