Plastic turned into MXene–based pyro-piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator-driven self-powered wearable symmetric supercapacitor

Today, the world is facing two major issues. First, there isa lack of available energy resources (conventional ones) to fulfill our energy requirements, and second, non-biodegradable plastic wastes spread over our planet, destroying its natural habitat. To provide a simplified solution to these problems, the authors of this work proposed a facile approach to convert plastic into titanium carbide–MXene (TiC–Ti3C2O2)–based pyro-piezoelectric hybrid nanogenerator driven wearable self-powered symmetric supercapacitor (SPSSC). NiSnO3–PVA–KOH and FeSnO3–PVA–KOH have been used as solid gel electrolytes, and their combined pyro-piezoelectric effect gives rise to the self-charging of the device. Moreover, the self-charging potential has been explored by incorporating normal forces, angular bending, heating, and increasing the device area. A maximum of 700 mV open-circuit voltage has been recorded. The specific capacitance of the SPSSC is 556 F g−1, an energy density of 111.11 W h kg−1 at a high-power density of 4 kW kg−1, and excellent cyclic stability of 93% after 10,000 repeated GCD cycles.