Flexible Vitrimers for Self-healable Triboelectric Nanogenerators.

Despite rapid advancements in the development of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG), mechanical defects generated during their working condition limit the service lifetime of these devices. Polyester-based vitrimers can offer a solution to solve this issue via their dynamic bond exchange reactions. However, they often require high temperatures and a long time to crosslink, rendering them not useful for large-scale TENG fabrication. To solve these issues, a self-healable vitrimer-based triboelectric nanogenerator (VITENG) is developed based on diacrylate poly(dimethylsiloxane) (AA-PDMS) via a fast thiol-Michael reaction. By including 2,3-dihydroxypropyl methacrylate (DHPMA), hydroxy end dangling side chains are generated in the matrix, which increase the PDMS network's flexibility and transesterification efficiency. Efficient transesterification occurs on the abundant dynamic ß-hydroxy ester bonds in the PDMS network, resulting in 100% efficient mechanical damage repair. The VITENG demonstrates a good performance with an output voltage of 135 V under a load of 10 N, demonstrating the potential for mechanical energy harvesters with long lifetimes and high design flexibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]