Jeehee Lee1,Araz Rajabi-Abhari1,Haeshin Lee1,Il-Kwon Oh1
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology1
Jeehee Lee1,Araz Rajabi-Abhari1,Haeshin Lee1,Il-Kwon Oh1
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology1
Although abiotic triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have greater capacity in harvesting energy, the need for biotic triboelectric nanogenerators (Bio-TENGs) has emerged for better compatibility with host. However, the low stability of biomaterials during physical and chemical modifications for enhancing surface energy limits their potential. Herein, we fabricated Bio-TENGs utilizing diatom frustule (DF), having high surface roughness with hierarchical pore layers, and chemistry-responsive super-wettable surfaces highly negative. By individually giving electron-donating (NH<sub>2</sub>) and -withdrawing (F) elements on the rough DF surfaces, amine-modified DF containing cellulose nanocrystal membranes and fluorine-modified DF containing polydimethylsiloxane membranes becomes tribo-positive and tribo-negative materials respectively. A combination of antagonistically charged two membranes exhibits 16 times enhanced power density (2.01 W/m<sup>2</sup>)<sup> </sup>compared to controls without functionalized DFs. Cytotoxicity-confirmed non-toxic this system suggests the capacity-improvable potential of Bio-TENGs.