Enhanced Triboelectric Nanogenerator Performance via an Optimised Low Permittivity, Low Thickness Substrate

Min, Guanbo; Manjakkal, Libu; Mulvihill, Daniel M.; Dahiya, Ravinder S.

Abstract

With electrical power generated from mechanical contact, the triboelectric nanogenerators (TEN Gs) have attracted attention recently as a promising route to realising self-powered sensors (e.g. tactile sensors, biomedical sensors etc.). Due to their limited power range (0.1-100 mW/cm 2 ), it is important to optimise the output performance of TENGs. Among the factors that confer higher performance are materials with a strong triboelectric effect and materials with low permittivity. It can be difficult to realize these two benefits in a single contact material. This paper presents a solution to this challenge by optimising a low permittivity substrate beneath the tribo-contact layer. Results are simulated over a range of both substrate permittivity and thickness. The open circuit voltage is found to increase by a factor of 1.8 in moving from PVDF to the lower permittivity PTFE and by a further factor of 37.2 when the substrate thickness is reduced from 200 to 1 μ1 μm . For PTFE with 1 μ1 μm thickness, this amounts to 12.2 kV, as against 327V known from simulations up to now. These results clearly indicate that optimized low permittivity, low thickness substrates represent a potential route to self-powered sensors.

Citation

Min, G., Manjakkal, L., Mulvihill, D. M., & Dahiya, R. S. (2018). Enhanced Triboelectric Nanogenerator Performance via an Optimised Low Permittivity, Low Thickness Substrate. . https://doi.org/10.1109/icsens.2018.8589631

• Conference Name: 2018 IEEE Sensors
• Conference Location: New Delhi
• Start Date: Oct 28, 2018
• End Date: Oct 31, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Dec 27, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Dec 27, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018-10
• Deposit Date: Jul 29, 2022
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/icsens.2018.8589631
• Keywords: Triboelectric nanogenerator, Self-powered Sensors, Permittivity, Dielectric
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2893200