Liquid‐Filling Polydimethylsiloxane Composites with Enhanced Triboelectric Performance for Flexible Nanogenerators

Abstract

Material functionalization of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) plays an important role in TENG's electric performance for sustainable energy harvesting. In this work, a method for improving polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites triboelectric performance has been proposed, via filling high dielectric constant liquid (instead of solids) into PDMS matrix. The improvement is attributed to the high dielectric constant liquid in PDMS matrix that reduced the effective thickness of PDMS and increased the dielectric constant of PDMS composite synchronously. At 50% filling ratio (PDMS‐HD50), the triboelectric performance exhibits an enhancement of 4.5‐fold in output voltage and 3.9‐fold in output current as compared to pure PDMS. The results, besides higher transparency, are superior to the results from traditional solid dielectric constant doping materials like BaTiO3 nanoparticle in PDMS. This work has proved potentials of dielectric liquid filling materials in fabricating TENGs and could be a guidance for exploring new liquid filling materials.

Plasmonic Cavity for Self-Powered Chemical Detection and Performance Boosted Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Detection

“…According to previous study, many attempts have been made to enhance output performance of TENG by adding nanoparticles with high dielectric constants to PDMS, such as BaTiO 3 , TiO 2 , ZnSnO 3 , etc. Simultaneously, liquid metal , and many other with high permittivity liquid also have been applied as doping materials into PDMS matrix. Therefore, we can also add some high dielectric constant liquid to the Ag NP@PDMS plasmonic cavity to increase the dielectric constant of the PDMS-liquid composite layer, resulting in improving the output signal of the TENG (Figure a).…”

Flexible Triboelectric Nanogenerators based on Hydrogel/g-C3N4 Composites for Biomechanical Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Sensing

“…The incorporation of inorganic nanomaterials into hydrogel is one effective approach for fabricating conductive hydrogels and improving the composites’ permittivity , where the most common way is doping certain materials into pristine hydrogels, such as carbon nanotubes, electronegative halogens, metal nanowires or nanoparticles, , two-dimensional (2D) materials (e.g., MXenes, MoS 2 , graphene, graphene oxide, graphitic carbon nitride, ferroelectric materials, e.g., SrTiO 3 or BaTiO 3 − ), etc. Doped PVA hydrogels can be developed as high-performance flexible bionic-skin electrodes as well as triboelectric layer dielectrics, which are novel, unique, and essential.…”

Enhanced Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on a Hybrid Cellulose Aerogel for Energy Harvesting and Self-Powered Sensing

“…28,31 However, less research has been focused on aerogels in TENG. Petroleum-based polymers, such as poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF), 32,33 poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE), 34,35 nylon, 33,34 and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) 36,37 are commonly used as friction layer materials of TENG. These nondegradable materials significantly compromised the overall sustainability of the TENGs.…”