Facile Tailoring of Contact Layer Characteristics of the Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Portable Imprinting Device

Abstract

Renewable energy harvesting technologies have been actively studied in recent years for replacing rapidly depleting energies, such as coal and oil energy. Among these technologies, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), which is operated by contact-electrification, is attracting close attention due to its high accessibility, light weight, high shape adaptability, and broad applications. The characteristics of the contact layer, where contact electrification phenomenon occurs, should be tailored to enhance the electrical output performance of TENG. In this study, a portable imprinting device is developed to fabricate TENG in one step by easily tailoring the characteristics of the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) contact layer, such as thickness and morphology of the surface structure. These characteristics are critical to determine the electrical output performance. All parts of the proposed device are 3D printed with high-strength polylactic acid. Thus, it has lightweight and easy customizable characteristics, which make the designed system portable. Furthermore, the finger tapping-driven TENG of tailored PDMS contact layer with microstructures is fabricated and easily generates 350 V of output voltage and 30 μA of output current with a simple finger tapping motion-related biomechanical energy.