Flexible and Porous Polyimide/Carbon Nanotube Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Efficient Electromagnetic Dissipation

Nowadays, triboelectric nanogenerators have attracted considerable interest in a variety of applications. Nevertheless, it is still challenging to ascertain the impact of triboelectric generation on electromagnetic dissipation performance. Here, we report a compressible electromagnetic shielding single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (ES-TENG). It is composed of isocyanate-based polyimide/carbon nanotubes (PI/CNT) foam as positive electrodes and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as negative electrodes, respectively. The effective loading of carbon nanotubes facilitates the rational construction of conductive networks within PI/CNT foam, promoting the effective dissipation of incident electromagnetic waves. More importantly, the generated charge plays an essential role in interfacial polarization during triboelectric generation process, which enhances the electromagnetic shielding effectiveness from 17.2 dB to 26.5 dB in 12.4-18 GHz. The corresponding absorption (A) coefficient can be up to 0.9 in the most frequency of Ku and K bands. Such excellent electromagnetic characteristics make it possible for PI/CNT to exhibit a broad application prospect in the development of efficient absorption-dominated electromagnetic dissipation with sustainable energy harvesting.