25 / 2016-09-20 10:42:09

Achieving High Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator via a Size-unlimited, Low-cost and Time-saving Surface Micro-structure Modification Method

TENG,surface modification,2629,high output performance

Triboelectrification and static electrification are common phenomenon in nature. However, the triboelectricity and static electricity were hard to be utilized in the past and thought to be harmful to industry and human health, so people have made many efforts to eliminate and prevent the triboelectricity and static electricity.1 Recently, a novel device termed triboelectrific nanogenerator (TENG) has attracted growing interests, which can harvest triboelectricity and static electricity caused by mechanical motion in the surrounding environment and power electronics.2,3
The output performance of TENG was significantly improved by modifying the tribo-surface of TENG at microscale or nanoscale, which obviously increased the friction area.4 Hence, people produced different micro/nano patterns on tribo-surface with different methods such as soft lithography and block copolymer (BCP) technology.5 However, these methods are time-consuming, high-cost and difficult for large-area processing, which, to some extent, limited the industrial production of TENG technology.
Here, we demonstrated a simple, fast and low-cost method, in which the tribo-surfaces of TENG were processed without size limitation to improve its output performance. This method was very convenient and cheap, and most importantly, it allowed large area surface modification without size limitations. Through this method，a large-size treated TENG (20 cm×20 cm) with micro-scale surface structures can be easily achieved and its output voltage and power can be increased by a factor of 3 and 5, respectively.
We can obtain linear micro-structures on tribo-surfaces of TENG without size limitation via a simple, fast sandpaper treatment method. Through this treatment, the output performance of the TENG can be easily increased by several times compared with the untreated one.