Multi-Level Energy Dissipation and Multi-Scenario Energy Harvesting in Elastomers Enabled by Synergistic Coordination of Subnanowires and Dynamic Boron-Oxygen Bonds.

Abstract

The development of durable triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) capable of efficient energy harvesting across diverse scenarios remains challenging due to the inherent brittleness and limited energy-dissipation capacity of conventional triboelectric materials. A polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-polyborosiloxane (PBS)-GdOOH (PPG) elastomer is designed via synergistic coordination of GdOOH subnanowires (SNWs) and dynamic boron-oxygen (B─O) bonds. Multi-level energy dissipation of PPG occurs during the stress process: i) hydrogen bond breaking; ii) dynamic B─O bond and metal coordination bond breaking; iii) entanglement and sliding of SNWs. Compared to pure PDMS, PPG exhibits 6.1 times higher maximum strain and 37.6 times higher toughness, as well as excellent impact resistance. Furthermore, SNWs significantly enhance the triboelectric performance of TENG, yielding an open-circuit voltage and a short-circuit current that are 53 and 19 times higher than the PDMS-based device. Such TENGs enables efficient energy harvesting from human motion, water droplets, and waves. It is demonstrated that SNWs exhibit a synergistic enhancement effect on the mechanical and triboelectric properties of polymers, offering new insights for the design of impact-resistant materials and high-performance TENGs.