Improving the performance of a triboelectric nanogenerator by optimizing structural and electrical parameters of PDMS-based polymer films
Qingyang Zhou and Takashi Ikuno Tokyo University of Science, Japan
Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are micro-generators that have general adaptability and can efficiently collect mechanical energy from various sources such as human motion, mechanical vibration, rotation, wind, tidal currents, and water waves. Our research focuses on the issue of low output among several issues of TENGs and aims to improve the output power. TENGs generate electricity through the contact/separation or friction of two materials with different work functions. To improve the output power, there are three approaches as follows: (1) the selection of hetero materials, (2) embedding of high relative permittivity materials in polymer films to increase the relative permittivity, and (3) modification of surface morphology by decreasing the film’s thickness or increasing the film’s surface area. Among them, we are focusing on the second and third approaches. In this study, we embedded the high- k nanoparticles (NPs) such as TiO 2 NPs and SrTiO 3 (STO) NPs in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The asymmetric NPs/PDMS composite films were fabricated to increase the output power. The composite film was composed of NPs-embedded PDMS film (composite layer) and pure PDMS thin film (capping layer) which was deposited on the composite layer (Fig. 1). The power generation properties were characterized using a hand-made system with an Al plate as the counter electrode. Details of the manufacturing method and the analytical method will be described on the day. As a result, we found that the asymmetric TiO 2 NPs/PDMS composite film with a PDMS capping layer showed that the output power was 13 times higher than that of the PDMS film without the TiO 2 NPs [1]. In addition, the output power of the asymmetric STO NPs/PDMS composite film with a PDMS capping layer was approximately 169 times higher than that of the PDMS film without the STO NPs [2]. Moreover, we focus on decreasing the asymmetric composite film’s thickness to increase the output power of TENGs. As a result. the maximum output voltage was approximately 2 times higher than that of the asymmetric TiO 2 NPs/PDMS composite films we previously fabricated [3] (Fig. 2).
Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the NPs/PDMS composite film.
Fig. 2. Summary of the output power results.
References 1. Q. Zhou, R. Takita, and T. Ikuno: Nanomaterials 13 , 832 (2023). 2. Q. Zhou and T. Ikuno, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys 62 , 058001 (2023). 3. Q. Zhou and T. Ikuno, (2023). (submitted)
P19
© The Author(s), 2023
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog