Self-powered Microbial Inactivation and Particle Removal in Water by Gelatin-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Ultrathin, biodegradable, and biocompatible gelatin (GE) multilayer films were fabricated using eco-friendly layer -by -layer self -assembly. The electrostatic self -assembly of one species (i.e., GE) is realized using its dependence on solution pH. The electrical properties and device performance of the self -assembled GE multilayer triboelectric nanogenerators (ML-TENGs) were determined by varying the pH of the GE medium from 4 to 7. At pH 5, 110 nm-thick of the three adsorbed cycles of GE ML-TENG exhibited the highest output power density of 15.9 W/m 2 owing to its highest surface potential of 208 mV and surface roughness of 19.2 nm, resulting in an increased tendency to lose electrons and effective contact area, respectively. We successfully fabricated a selfpowered GE ML-TENG-driven electrophoretic device to eliminate toxic SiO 2 and ZnO nanoparticles from water. Furthermore, integrating a GE multilayer-TENG for electric stimulation of antibacterial devices is a promising approach and exhibits a significant inhibitory effect on gram -negative Escherichia coli ( E. coli ) and gram -positive Staphylococcus aureus strains. Finally, we demonstrated that the vertical -axis wind turbine GE freestanding film TENG electricity and graphene-based filtration system work simultaneously to attain approximately 100 % E. coli inhibition efficiency without an external power supply for the water disinfection system.