Vertically aligned cyclo-phenylalanine peptide nanowire-based high-performance triboelectric energy generator

초록

Biocompatible materials are expected to play significant roles in bio-medical applications. Especially, dipeptide nanostructures have drawing considerable attention owing to their biocompatibility, functional molecular recognition, and unique biological and electronic properties. However, a lack of mass production and facile fabrication of the stable peptide nanostructure array has been one of the major hurdles holding back the practical applications. Here, we present a study developed a simple and wafer-scale process to produce a cyclo-diphenylalanine (CycloFF) nanowire array via a thermal evaporation process and fabricated Cyclo-FF-based triboelectric energy generators (TEG) with high performance. This approach allowed us to control of the dimensions of the Cyclo-FF nanowires and the preparation of stable peptide nanostructures under ambient conditions. The Cyclo-FF nanowires were utilized as triboelectric materials for biocompatible nanogenerators. It exhibited high-performance power outputs, which reached ~ 350 V and ~ 10 μA, with a surface treatment. This method is compatible for the synthesis of bionanomaterials over a large area, and thus can be a powerful strategy to fabricate high-performance biocompatible energy devices for a range of practical applications in the future.