A highly reliable contact-separation based triboelectric nanogenerator for scavenging bio-mechanical energy and self-powered electronics

The increasing interest in harvesting mechanical energy from day-to-day activities is gaining huge interest among researchers. We have fabricated a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) made of aluminum and PDMS film acting as positive and negative triboelectric layers. The layers are arranged in an arc-shaped structure with an air gap of 1 cm between the layers of the device. The PDMS layer is made by blending the polymer solution with the hardener in an appropriate ratio and dried to make the transparent and flexible polymer film. The device shows a maximum electrical response of 110 V and 260 nA voltage and current with the power density of 2.9 mW/m2 at 100 MΩ load resistance. Further, the device has been used for lighting green LEDs and charging commercial capacitors. An Arduino board was connected with LED and buzzer, which was triggered by the TENG device. This shows that with the proper usage of electronic components TENG can be used for self-powered sensors and with IoT applications.