High-performance triboelectric nanogenerator based on ZrB₂/PDMS for metal corrosion protection

Metal corrosion brings billions of dollars of economic losses each year. As a smart and new energy harvesting device, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are able to convert almost all mechanical energies into electricity, leading to great prospects in metal corrosion prevention, cathodic protection, etc. In this work, flexible TENGs were designed utilizing the energy harvested by flexible PDMS films with ZrB₂ nanoparticles, dielectric constant was effectively improved by ZrB₂, the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current are 264 V and 22.9 μA, respectively, and the power density of the TENG reaches 6 W/m². Furthermore, a self-powered anti-corrosion system is designed by the rectifier circuit integrated with the TENGs, and the open circuit potential (OCP) and Tafel curves show that the system has excellent anti-corrosion effect on carbon steel, indicating that the system has broad application prospects in metal cultural relics, ocean engineering, industry and so on.