Humidity-resistive triboelectric nanogenerators based on cellulose acetate nanofibers via incorporation of self-delaminated CoAl-layered double hydroxides

As the demand for ubiquitous power sources in the Internet of Things expands, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)-based energy harvesting technology has attracted much attention because of its advantages in scavenging energies from the ambient regardless of time and place. Despite significant advances in their performances and applications, TENGs still suffer from insufficient output power and performance degradation problems, particularly in high-humidity environments. To circumvent these critical issues, this study aims to enhance the output performance and humidity resistance of TENGs by incorporating self-delaminated CoAl-layered double hydroxide (CoAl-LDH) into cellulose acetate (CA) nanofibers (NFs) fabricated by using electrospinning process. Incorporating CoAl-LDH with high electrochemical activity and hygroscopic properties improved the tribo-positive characteristics and increased the charge accumulation of the CA NFs. Finally, the TENG using the CoAl-LDH/CA composite NFs improved the output voltage by 62% compared to the pristine one. Because the CoAl-LDHs can absorb moisture and form hydrogen bonds with water molecules, the composite NFs could maintain stable output performance even under high humidity ambient, outperforming the pristine CA NFs. These findings highlight the potential of CoAl-LDH/CA composite NFs for use in TENGs, particularly in applications requiring high-performance stability in humid environments.