High value-added development of waste cellulose peels for bio-piezoelectric membrane in nanogenerator-derived self-powered sensor

Developing high value-added utilization of abundant waste peels could alleviate increasingly environmental concerns and promote economic returns to the industry. In this report, a common waste tomato peel was selected and developed as the bio-piezoelectric membrane for nanogenerator derived self-powered sensor in multifunctional applications. The membrane with a thickness of about 40 μm is composed of nano-layers stacked together, resulting in a laminated structure. The nano-layer is assembled by the interstitial parallel combination of the nanocrystalline microfibrils of cellulsoe I β embedded in the amorphous matrix containing hemicellulose and lignin. The ordered cellulose I β chain network linked by hydrogen bond in the nanocrystalline microfibrils with a crystal grain size of 1.093 nm is responsible for the piezoelectric effect of the membrane. As a result, a favorable linear relation with an R 2 of 0.984 between voltage and force and a sensitivity of 16.17 mV N −1 are given for the membrane based device. Owing to the multiple characteristics of the device, such as nontoxicity, self-powered capability, flexibility and multifunctionality, its potential is exhibited in three types of application scenarios, including human–computer interaction, harvesting wind and mechanical energy, and responding dangerous signal in alarming system.