Resumen
Advancements in electronic devices have escalated through time and their utilization has been significantly distributed to every corner of the world. These devices use battery as an external power source in order to operate; however, battery needs regular recharging and replacement and its assembly and disposal pose imminent threat to health and environment, making it not the best option. Converting ambient mechanical energy into electricity through triboelectrification has been proposed to be one of the approaches to charge these batteries. A bio-based triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) using silica from sugarcane bagasse was fabricated in this study, and its performance was enhanced by modifying the porosity of silica through three different techniques: thermal annealing, slow gelation with freeze drying, and chemical dissolution. Pore size of silica was measured via FESEM, and the silica prepared from slow gelation and freeze drying was found to have the smallest pores. Si-O-Si stretching bonds of silica and the untreated bagasse measured using FTIR peak at the same wavelengths indicating that the modification in porosity did a little-to-no-effect in the stretching bonds. The open-circuit voltage output and surface charge density of 5x5 cm2 TENG employing the most porous silica and untreated bagasse were determined and 2 Hz contact time was employed. The TENG with the most porous silica gave a maximum reading of 3.58 V and 3.1683 nC/m2; whereas the TENG with untreated bagasse yielded 0.376 V and 0.3328 nC/m2. The results were compared using t-test and a significant difference in open-circuit voltage and in surface charge density of the TENG with the porous silica and the TENG with the untreated bagasse was observed. Results from this study will pave the way for the use of organic waste materials in the fabrication of TENG of enhanced performance as an effective and efficient alternative to batteries.