A novel polymer composite from polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride for high performance triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs)

In this study, we report the successful fabrication of a novel antibacterial triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) using a polymer composite film based on polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride (PHMG). The composite materials, with optimised ingredient ratios, consist of PHMG, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and glutaraldehyde (GA) as a crosslinking agent (PHMG-GA-PVA). Utilising 3D printing, these composite materials were directly deposited on the conductive substrates and used as positive TENG electrodes. The obtained results show that the TENGs based on PHMG-GA-PVA exhibit high output efficiency, achieving peak-to-peak open-circuit voltage (<i>V</i> _p-p) and short-circuit current (<i>I</i> _SC) values of 664.5 V and 116.8 μA, respectively, at a low operating frequency of 1 Hz with an actuation force of 10 N. The device retains approximately 98% of its initial output voltage value after 360 000 contact-release cycles.