Graphene Based Triboelectric Nanogenerators Using Water Based Solution Process

Abstract

A rapid development in personal electronics has raised challenging requirements for portable and sustainable power sources. For example, in wearable technologies, the concept of wearable body area network brings body motion and vital signs monitoring together in synergy. For this, a key aspect is sustainable portable energy, available anywhere, at any time, as generated by triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG). This technology usually demands high-cost processes and materials and still suffer from low power output, as well as unstable output values due to charge generating stimulus with variable intensities. In this work, we present TENGs using shear exfoliated graphene as electrodes as well as active triboelectric layer deposited by a simple solution process. Graphene in combination with polymers such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) were used to produce TENG devices using low-cost solution processing methods. Device electrical power generation was tested with a cyclic physical stimulus for better control and understanding of device output. The triboelectric response of these materials showed open circuit voltages (Voc) and short-circuit currents (Isc)of approximately 233 V and 731 nA respectively when stimulated at 1.5 Hz. A power density of 13.14 μW/cm2 under a load of 200 MΩ was achieved, which can be 40 times higher when compared to devices made with aluminum and PDMS. These results demonstrate the potential of solution process for low-cost triboelectric devices for self-sustainable wearable portable nanogenerators on health and security applications using contact and positional sensors.

Optimizing the efficiency of triboelectric nanogenerators by surface nanoarchitectonics of graphene-based electrodes: A review

“…To implement solution-based methods in fabrication of TENGs, Domingos et al [56] introduced shear-exfoliated graphene electrodes to enhance the flexibility of the device. SEG flakes were obtained from graphite by solution-processed method using sodium cholate as J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f surfactant.…”

“…SEG flakes were obtained from graphite by solution-processed method using sodium cholate as J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f surfactant. Two TENG devices were fabricated using graphene and aluminium as back electrodes in order to compare the performance of metal and carbon electrodes [56]. A maximum power density of 13.14 μW/cm 2 is achieved which is 40 times higher than that from aluminium electrodes based TENG.…”

2D Material‐Based Wearable Energy Harvesting Textiles: A Review

“…[116][117][118] Numerous studies have indicated significant improvements in TENG performance with the use of various 2D materials. [33,119,120] The use of 2D materials in the fabrication of textile-based wearable TENGs has resulted in considerable improvements in mechanical and electrical performance. [121][122][123][124][125][126] These findings demonstrate that 2D materials are absolutely fascinating candidates for mechanical energy harvesting applications in wearable textiles.…”

Harvesting circuits for triboelectric nanogenerators for wearable applications

“…Other alternatives have also been tested using carbon-based materials, such as carbon nanotubes or graphene, which offer excellent performance under harsh mechanical deformation or even conductive textiles (Haque et al, 2018;Khan et al, 2017;Tian et al, 2018;Domingos et al, 2021). Mainly targeting applications in fabric, they also offer compatible processing deposition with textiles.…”