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

  • Date:

    31 October 2018

  • Publication Status:

    Published

  • Publisher

    IEEE

  • DOI:

    10.1109/icsens.2018.8589631

  • Cross Ref:

    10.1109/icsens.2018.8589631

  • Funders:

    Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

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

Authors

Keywords

Triboelectric nanogenerator, Self-powered Sensors, Permittivity, Dielectric

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