Performance enhancement of triboelectric nanogenerators via photo-generated carriers using a polymer-perovskite composite

We report the performance of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) fabricated using the composite of PEDOT:PSS, PVDF-TrFE, and MAPbI3 particles. The results indicate that the TENG exhibits enhanced output current density under light illumination conditions due to the conductive and photovoltaic properties of the composite. The MAPbI3 particles in the composite generate electron and hole pairs when illuminated, contributing to increasing the output current density of the TENG. The MAPbI3 particles encapsulated in PVDF-TrFE prevents the deterioration of MAPbI3 particles and thus the stability of the composite layer was greatly enhanced compared to typical perovskite thin film layers. In addition, PEDOT:PSS in the composite provides a pathway to collect photo-generated carriers. Specifically, the composite layer containing 40 wt% of MAPbI3 and 0.1 wt% of PEDOT:PSS demonstrated the highest output power density under light irradiation. In addition, by exploiting the ferroelectric properties of MAPbI3 particles, the composite layer was polarized to facilitate the separation of photo-generated carriers, which further increased the output current density of TENG. As a result, when operating under light incident conditions, more than 2.5 × higher current density was achieved compared to the value measured in dark conditions.