Mxene-Graphene Oxide Hybrid Aerogel Microspheres Reinforced Coated Source Electrode for Droplet Energy Harvesting

Abstract

Nanoscale energy harvesting based on the principles of friction electricity and electrostatic induction shows great potential for low-frequency, low-density forms of energy distribution. However, selection of materials for the electrode layer is still mainly limited to metal/metal oxide, necessitating the development of electrode architectures to enable performance breakthroughs and expand application scope. Notably, multiple application scenarios such as building-integrated rainwater energy harvesting through architectural coatings require coating-enabled harvesting technologies and special material choices that directly contribute to reducing dependence on traditional fossil fuels. A flexible coated electrode featuring MXene-graphene oxide (GO) 2D nanostructured self-assembled composites with interlayer-reinforced microsphere-sheet structure has been designed, which exhibits good performance characteristics of a metal-like electrode layer. The droplet energy generating membranes (DEGM) fabricated from dielectric material polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and coated source electrode (SE) achieves a short-circuit current (Isc) of 960 μA, a peak power density of 108 W m−2, and an efficiency of 10.45%. The development of coated SE provides approaches to surface-coated droplets energy harvesting for green buildings and the deployment of distributed Internet of Things (IoT) systems.

Keywords: nanoscale, droplet energy, MXene, self-assembly, microsphere-sheet, coated electrode