Self-powered fluoride detection and removal system using waste material utilization and self-healing capabilities

The current work outlines the finding of a distinctive method to detect hazardous fluoride ions in the water below permissible limits using a waste material-based self-healable triboelectric nanogenerator. In this work, the authors showed the steps involved to detect fluoride in a chemisorption-based self-powered sensor. The device is made-up of waste materials like butadiene-styrene rubber, used polythene bags, and used plastic sheets, and Lanthanum doped Polyaniline-Polypyrrole nanospheres, which validates the waste to energy conversion ability with maximum output voltage of ∼242 volts and 40 μA current. The present self-powered fluoride detection device displays a maximum sensor response of 12.10, a % sensor response of 1110 %, and limit of detection of 4.7 μM, which is far better than previous reports. The self-healing ability of Polydimethylsiloxane/Butadiene-Styrene rubber powder decorated with LaPP (lanthanum doped Polyaniline-Polypyrrole) nanospheres shows fast healing in ∼25 min with a healing efficiency of 99.9 %, which is one of the unique features of this device. Additionally, the present work also demonstrates not only recognition but the removal of fluoride ions using waste Juncus effusus biomass. The removal percentage of the fluoride was found to be 92.6 % having an adsorption capacity of 2.31 mg/g. In summary, this paper establishes a special way to sense the fluorides and their removals using waste materials.