C-H Azidation System Induced by Visible Light from Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on a Cadmium Coordination Polymer

Utilizing sustainable and convenient energy from the environment via triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) to achieve photoinduced organic conversion was an effective but challenging strategy. Herein, we addressed this challenge by introducing coordination polymers (CPs) into the TENG for output regulation. A two-dimensional cadmium coordination polymer (Cd-CP) was synthesized and used as the triboelectric layer for fabricating TENGs. Due to its well-defined platform as well as consistent and precise structure, the output of the Cd-CP-based TENG was superior to that of the ligand-based TENG. To clearly illustrate the influence of the doping ratios of Cd-CP in organic polymers and further improve the output performance of these TENGs, Cd-CP was associated with different polarities of ethyl cellulose (EC) and poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) to produce a variety of composite films, which were employed as triboelectrodes to engineer TENGs. The results indicated that the outputs of Cd-CP@EC-TENG exceeded those of Cd-CP@PVDF-TENG at the same doping proportion. In particular, 15% Cd-CP@EC-TENG possessed the best stability and highest outputs to light up white beads as a visible light source for the photoinduced C-H azidation reaction in good yields with high tolerance. The design and concept of this study not only verified that the components of the triboelectric layer played an important role in tuning TENG outputs but also provided an efficient pathway to realize photoinduced reactions with operational simplicity and high yields.