Effects of Temperature on the Tribovoltaic Effect at Liquid-Solid Interfaces

Energy harvesters based on tribovoltaic effect are interesting due to their direct current output characteristic that matches most commercial electronic devices. However, their mechanism remains to be further investigated, especially for liquid-solid cases. Here, the effect of temperature on the tribovoltaic effect at liquid-solid interfaces is studied. The results show that the increasing of temperature will lead to the increase of the tribo-voltage and tribo-current at the water/Si and water/metal interfaces during sliding. Moreover, the coupling effect of the pH value of the liquid and the temperature on the tribovoltaic effect is demonstrated, and an energy band model is proposed for understanding the received data, in which the energy released (“bindington”) by contacting the liquid and the solid with the formation of chemical bonds is considered to be responsible for the generation of tribovoltaic effect.