Triboelectric energy harvesting response of different polymer-based materials

• Published in: Materials Vol. 13; no. 21; pp. 1 - 12
• Main Authors: Rodrigues-Marinho, Tiago, Castro, Nelson, Correia, Vitor, Costa, Pedro Filipe Ribeiro, Lanceros-Méndez, S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 05.11.2020; MDPI AG; MDPI
• Subjects: Barium titanates; Butadiene; Capacitors; Charge materials; Ciências Físicas; Ciências Naturais; Composite materials; Dielectric properties; Electrodes; Electronic devices; Energy; Energy harvesting; Fluorides; Glass substrates; Hot pressing; Internet of Things; Kapton (trademark); Light emission; low-power devices; Materials selection; Mica; Nanogenerators; Polyamide resins; Polyimide resins; polymer and composites; Polymer matrix composites; Polymers; Polyurethane resins; Polyvinylidene fluorides; Power management; Remote sensors; Science & Technology; Solvents; Styrenes; triboelectric effect; Vertical separation; St Louis Missouri; France; United States > US; Portugal; Germany; Spain
• ISSN: 1996-1944; 1996-1944
• DOI: 10.3390/ma13214980

Energy harvesting systems for low-power devices are increasingly being a requirement within the context of the Internet of Things and, in particular, for self-powered sensors in remote or inaccessible locations. Triboelectric nanogenerators are a suitable approach for harvesting environmental mechanical energy otherwise wasted in nature. This work reports on the evaluation of the output power of different polymer and polymer composites, by using the triboelectric contact-separation systems (10 N of force followed by 5 cm of separation per cycle). Different materials were used as positive (Mica, polyamide (PA66) and styrene/ethylene-butadiene/styrene (SEBS)) and negative (polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), polyurethane (PU), polypropylene (PP) and Kapton) charge materials. The obtained output power ranges from 0.2 to 5.9 mW, depending on the pair of materials, for an active area of 46.4 cm 2 . The highest response was obtained for Mica with PVDF composites with 30 wt.% of barium titanate (BT) and PA66 with PU pairs. A simple application has been developed based on vertical contact-separation mode, able to power up light emission diodes (LEDs) with around 30 cycles to charge a capacitor. Further, the capacitor can be charged in one triboelectric cycle if an area of 0.14 m 2 is used. This research was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia under framework of the Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2020 and projects UIDB/05549/2020 and TSSiPRO-NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000015. The authors also thank the F.C.T. for financial support under grants SFRH/BD/140242/2018 (T.R.M.), SFRH/BPD/98109/2013 (P.C.). Finally, the authors acknowledge funding by Spanish State Research Agency (A.E.I.) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERFD) through the project PID2019-106099RB-C43/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and from the Basque Government Industry and Education Department under the ELKARTEK, HAZITEK and PIBA (PIBA-2018-06) programs, respectively, are also acknowledged.