Two-dimensional Cobalt Telluride as Piezo-tribogenerator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a 2D Cobalt Telluride-based piezo-tribogenerator that efficiently converts waste heat into electricity, showing promising voltage output and improved efficiency with temperature, validated by theoretical calculations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel 2D CoTe2 piezo-tribogenerator with enhanced energy conversion efficiency and provides experimental and theoretical insights into its performance.

Findings

Produced ~5V open-circuit voltage under 1N force

Efficiency improved four-fold with temperature increase

Achieved maximum voltage of ~10V with fast response

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) materials have been shown to be efficient in energy harvesting. Here, we report utilization of waste heat to generate electricity via combined piezoelectric and triboelectric property of 2D Cobalt Telluride (CoTe2). The piezo-triboelectric nanogenerator (PTNG) produced an open-circuit voltage of ~5V under 1N force and the effect of temperature in the 305-363 K range shows a four-fold energy conversion efficiency improvement. The 2D piezo-tribogenerator shows excellent characteristics with a maximum voltage of ~10V, fast response time and high responsivity. Density functional theory was used to gain further insights and validation of the experimental results. Our results could lead to energy harvesting approaches using 2D materials from various thermal sources and dissipated waste heat from electronic devices.