Flexible Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on Cadmium Metal-Organic Framework/Eethyl Cellulose Composites as Energy Harvesters for Selective Photoinduced Bromination Reaction

The fabrication of self-driven systems with flexibility and tunable output for organic photoinduction is highly desirable but challenging. In this study, a 3D cadmium metal-organic framework (Cd-MOF) is synthesized and used as a filler for ethyl cellulose (EC) to create mechanically durable and flexible Cd-MOF@EC composite films. Due to its well-established platform with periodically precise structure nature, the outputs of Cd-MOF-based TENG are much higher than those of ligand-based TENGs. Furthermore, composite films with different doping ratios of Cd-MOF are employed to assemble Cd-MOF@EC-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). The results reveal that a doping ratio of 10 wt.% Cd-MOF in Cd-MOF@EC provides the highest TENG output. Subsequently, a flexible 10 wt.% Cd-MOF@EC-based TENG (FCEC-TENG), working in the contact-separation model, is constructed to harvest mechanical energy from the human body, demonstrating excellent output performance and stability. The energy harvested from FCEC-TENG can directly illuminate 14 commercial white light-emitting diodes (LEDs), providing visible light for the photoinduction of the bromination reaction, and generating bromide with good yield and tolerance. This study presents an effective method for constructing flexible MOF-based TENG for self-powered photoinduced organic transformation systems.