Vulcanized Hexagonal Conjugated Microporous Polymer Plates for High-Performance Triboelectric Energy Harvesting

This work demonstrates that postsynthetic vulcanization of Glaser coupling-based conjugated microporous polymers (GCMP) can enhance their tribopositive performance. Hexagonal GCMP plates (HGCMP) were prepared via template synthesis. The HGCMP containing conjugated 1,3-dialkyne moieties were vulcanized through a reaction with sulfur powder to form V-HGCMP. The HOMO energy level of V-HGCMP increased, compared to that of HGCMP. While the HGCMP in a polyvinylpyrrolidone matrix (HGCMP/PVP) exhibited a peak-to-peak voltage (Vp-p) of 423 V, the V-HGCMP/PVP showed an enhanced Vp-p of 518 V with a maximum power density (Pmax) of 1.66 mW/cm2. The optimized V-HGCMP/PVP-10 film showed excellent durability in triboelectric energy harvesting over 30,000 pushing-separation cycles. In addition, spring-assisted triboelectric nanogenerators incorporating the V-HGCMP/PVP-10 film were fabricated, successfully powering green LEDs and electronic devices.