ZIF-8, a hybrid network of metal ions and organic molecules, has a higher tendency to lose electrons. To boost wood's triboelectric properties, the scientists coated one piece of the wood with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicone that gains electrons upon contact, while functionalizing the other piece of wood with in-situ-grown nanocrystals called zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8). "It means that wood has no real tendency to acquire or to lose electrons." This limits the material's ability to generate electricity, "so the challenge is making wood that is able to attract and lose electrons," Panzarasa explains. "Wood is basically triboneutral," says senior author Guido Panzarasa, group leader in the professorship of Wood Materials Science located at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich and Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa) Dübendorf. However, there's one problem with making a nanogenerator out of wood. The electrons can transfer from one object to another, generating electricity. Like a shirt-clinging sock fresh out of the dryer, the wood pieces become electrically charged through periodic contacts and separations when stepped on, a phenomenon called the triboelectric effect. The team began by transforming wood into a nanogenerator by sandwiching two pieces of functionalized wood between electrodes.
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