Humidity Sustained Wearable Pouch‐Type Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Harvesting Mechanical Energy from Human Activities

• Published in: Advanced functional materials Vol. 29; no. 17
• Main Authors: Mule, Anki Reddy, Dudem, Bhaskar, Graham, Sontyana Adonijah, Yu, Jae Su
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 25.04.2019
• Subjects: Charge density; Dielectrics; Electric contacts; Energy harvesting; Humidity; Materials science; Multi wall carbon nanotubes; multiwalled carbon nanotubes; Nanogenerators; nylon composite; Polydimethylsiloxane; pouch‐type; Relative humidity; Silicone resins; Surface charge; triboelectric nanogenerators; Wearable technology
• ISSN: 1616-301X; 1616-3028
• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201807779

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are gaining much research interest recently owing to their facile and cost‐effective device structure. However, the effect of relative humidity (in moisture atmosphere) on the output performance still needs to be resolved. Herein, a pouch‐type TENG is proposed to significantly reduce the effect of relative humidity on its electrical output and a stable performance is also attained in a humid environment. In this regard, a dielectric and dielectric materials‐based TENG (DD‐TENG) is first developed using nanoarchitecture polydimethylsiloxane (NA‐PDMS) and multiwalled carbon nanotube/nylon composite layers as a triboelectric material with the negative and positive tendencies, respectively. The NA‐PDMS and nylon composite layers play a key role in increasing the surface contact area and surface charge density between the dielectric/triboelectric materials as well as the output performance of DD‐TENG. However, the DD‐TENG device exhibits a stable and high output performance with the effective output power density of ≈25.35 W m−2. Additionally, the performance of the pouch‐type DD‐TENG device is not almost affected even though the relative humidity is increased from 35 to 81%, while it is dramatically decreased for the nonpouch‐type device. Finally, the pouch‐type DD‐TENG is employed as a wearable device to effectively harvest the mechanical energy from daily human activities. The facile and cost‐effective encapsulation of humidity sustained pouch‐type triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is proposed. With the virtue of stable and high electrical performance, the pouch‐type TENG can effectively harness the various mechanical activities to switching and proximity applications.