Nanowerk March 24, 2022
The low efficiency of raindrop energy harvesting is a dominating barrier to the raindrop solar cells in practical applications. An international team of researchers (China, Egypt) has developed a MoO3/top electrode-based triboelectric nanogenerator (MT-TENG) with high rain droplet energy conversion efficiency, integrated with a perovskite solar cell through shared electrodes. The interface electrons between the triboelectric layer and electrode were blocked by the MoO3 layer with high permittivity and wide bandgap, and the MoO3-based TENG (M-TENG) increased the surface charge density. The top electrode structure in the solid–liquid interface increased the output charge by 101.1 times in total. By adjusting the water droplet parameters of tap water to simulate the actual application scenario, the raindrop output power and mechanical energy conversion efficiency reached 0.68 mW and 12.49%, respectively. The perovskite solar cell sustained photovoltaic power conversion efficiency of 19.38%. The shared electrode circuit design allows the raindrop solar cell to provide electric power on rainy and sunny days. It takes about 175 s to charge a 2.2 μF capacitor to 5 V…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
