Interfacial Charge Transfer Mechanism and Output Characteristics of Identical-Material Triboelectric Nanogenerators

TL;DR

This paper investigates how triboelectric signals interfere with piezoelectric measurements and proposes a new model and material solution to improve accuracy.

Contribution

The study reveals triboelectric charge transfer between identical materials and introduces a new electron transfer model and material (PP) for better piezoelectric measurement precision.

Findings

Triboelectric signals persist even with identical-material interfaces due to heterogeneous potential distribution.

A surface–tip electron cloud interaction model explains electron loss at material interfaces.

Polypropylene (PP) shows significantly lower triboelectric output, improving piezoelectric measurement accuracy.

Abstract

When testing the output of piezoelectric devices under different pressures, the friction between the pressure platform and the device causes a large amount of frictional electrical signals to be mixed in the output piezoelectric signal, seriously affecting the measurement accuracy of the piezoelectric signal. The current solution is to encapsulate the contact interface with identical materials to suppress triboelectric interference. However, this work has shown that even when contact separation is implemented at the interface of same media, triboelectric signals can still be generated. The heterogeneous potential distribution of the same material in contact separation has been discovered for the first time through the contact interface potential distribution, proving that charge transfer still exists between the same materials. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to analyze the microstructure of the interface, and it was found that the existence of the surface tip structure would enhance the electron loss. Based on this, a new electron transfer model for surface–tip electron cloud interaction is proposed in this work. In addition, by comparing the output voltage characteristics of the triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) of seven polymer materials (e.g., polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polyoxymethylene (POM), polyimide (PI), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET)), it was found that the open circuit voltage of PP material was only 0.06 V when they friction with each other, which is 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than other materials. When PP materials are applied to the package of piezoelectric devices, the precision of piezoelectric output characterization can be improved significantly, and a new experimental basis for a triboelectric theory system can be provided.

Figures