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Ultraviolet-protecting, flexible and stable photovoltaic-assisted piezoelectric hybrid unit nanogenerator for simultaneously harvesting ultraviolet light and mechanical energies

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Abstract

Owing to the ecological destruction and the energy crisis, harvesting green energy from the environment has become a hot issue in modern times. Here, a facile, flexible and stable hybrid unit nanogenerator (NG) with ultraviolet (UV) protection based on poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) unit and ultraviolet photovoltaic (SC) unit is fabricated. Specially, self-made thiophenyl soluble conjugated polymer (scp)/zinc oxide (ZnO) quantum dots nanocomposite film was prepared by spin-coating in ambient air condition as UV photoelectric and UV-protective thin film. The flexible photovoltaic films were found to exhibit good photovoltaic performance with a dominating fraction of UV absorption. Under external mechanical forces and UV LED illumination, and the open-circuit output voltage and short-circuit current of the device were significantly enhanced by UV LED constant light exposure. To specify this device performance, the effects of different external mechanical forces and UV illumination on the output of hybrid unit are also analyzed, the open-circuit output voltage of the device was significantly influenced by UV illumination. To demonstrate the practical applications of flexible hybrid unit NG, it exhibits high performance with a maximum power density of 0.97 mW/cm3. The device is able to charge a 33-μF capacitor to 3.6 V within a short time span (60 s) and drive a red LED for a few seconds. This work explores new prospects for UV-protective energy harvesting which can eventually boost up the self-powered electronic robotics and wearable systems based on renewable energy.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 51903225), Key Research and Development Projects of Shanxi Province (Grant Numbers 201803D121094 and 201903D121061) and Research Project Supported by Shanxi Scholarship Council of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, People’s Republic of China

    Xi Liu, Jie Li, Zhaozhou Fang, Chen Wang & Luosheng Shu

  2. School of Mechatronic Engineering, North University of China, Taiyuan, 030051, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Han

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  1. Xi Liu
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Correspondence to Jie Li.

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Liu, X., Li, J., Fang, Z. et al. Ultraviolet-protecting, flexible and stable photovoltaic-assisted piezoelectric hybrid unit nanogenerator for simultaneously harvesting ultraviolet light and mechanical energies. J Mater Sci 55, 15222–15237 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05078-4

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