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Enhancement of self-powered humidity sensing of graphene oxide–based triboelectric nanogenerators by addition of graphene oxide nanoribbons

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Abstract

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) electrode sensitive to the adsorption of water molecules has been introduced to create a self-powered humidity sensor. Graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets and graphene oxide nanoribbon (GONR) possessing oxygenated functional groups, as well as high dielectric constants, have been proposed as appropriate candidates for this purpose. GO papers have been fabricated in three forms, i.e. pure  GO paper, uniform composites of GONR and GO, and double-layer structures of GONR on top of  GO. Results showed that all of the prepared paper-based TENGs revealed excellent performances by maximum output voltage above 300 V. As active humidity sensors, the maximum voltage response values of 57%, 124%, and 78% were obtained for GO, GONR+GO, and GONR/GO TENGs, respectively. Besides high sensitivity and precision of all variants, GO+GONR TENG demonstrated a rapid response/recovery behavior (0.3/0.5 s). This phenomenon can be attributed to the higher oxygenated groups and defects on the edges of GONR, which leads to facilitating the bulk diffusion of water molecules. Our results open new avenues of GONR application as an additive to enhance the performance of self-powered humidity sensors, as well as conventional hygrometers.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF, Num: 98005876) and the Office of Research Affairs of Sharif University of Technology (QA971617).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, 14588-89694, Iran

    Faezeh Ejehi, Raheleh Mohammadpour & Somayeh Fardindoost

  2. Medical Nanotechnology and Tissue Engineering Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Elham Asadian

  3. Department of Tissue Engineering and Applied Cell Sciences, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Elham Asadian

  4. Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

    Pezhman Sasanpour

  5. School of Nanoscience, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM), P. O. Box 19395-5531, Tehran, Iran

    Pezhman Sasanpour

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  1. Faezeh Ejehi
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Correspondence to Raheleh Mohammadpour or Pezhman Sasanpour.

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Ejehi, F., Mohammadpour, R., Asadian, E. et al. Enhancement of self-powered humidity sensing of graphene oxide–based triboelectric nanogenerators by addition of graphene oxide nanoribbons. Microchim Acta 188, 251 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04921-y

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