Electro-blown spinning driven by cylindrical rotating triboelectric nanogenerator and its applications for fabricating nanofibers

Abstract The newly developed electro-spinning based on triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is one of the most convenient ways to produce nanofibers, however, it's required to have a high-voltage of no lower than 8000 V, meanwhile, it remains challenging to enhance productivity on push forward the commercialization and with low cost. Herein, we report an innovative electro-blown spinning (EBS) methodology based on a cylindrical rotating (CR) TENG that is fast, efficient, lower high-voltage and cost-effective for the fabrication of polymer nanofiber membranes. The CR-TENG serves both as a high-voltage source and as a receiver, it gave a stabilized elecric output that the short-circuit current (Isc) and transferred charge (ΔQsc) are ~75 μA, ~0.78 μC, and the peak power density (σ) reaches a maximum of ~ 2.23 W/m2. Combined with assisted blowing technology, we have successfully achieved in driven the EBS system by a voltage 6250 V, which has saved more than 21% of high-voltage consumption. In addition, the thickness of produced nanofiber membranes had reached several microns level at manufacturing time within 5 s, then productivity is obviously increased compared with the electro-spinning, and the diameter size of nanofibers has significantly decreased compared to the solution blowing spinning. Moreover, the produced membranes had reached a new level in just a case of a few microns thickness, take the polyethylene oxide (PEO) nanofiber membrane for example, the output Voc, Isc and ΔQsc are nearly 1.6, 1.5, and 1.7 times higher than commercial films.