TENG Based on Biocompatible and Easily Available Polymer Films

S R. Srither, D.S. Shankar Rao and S. Krishna Prasad,
Chemistry Select, 3, 5055 (2018)

We have fabricated robust triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) employing different polymer films which are biocompatible and easily available. The TENG with polyurethane+PTFE combination provide the highest TENG parameters, viz., open circuit voltage 33.5 V and a current 27.4 µA with a gentle tapping force of 0.33 N. We find a very good, albeit non-linear, correlation between the TENG electrical output and the surface roughness of employed polymer films. The TENG device with cellulose acetate and Kapton as the triboelectric layers, we have constructed a simple force sensor, whose output is highly linear with force varying from 0.24 to 5.2 N, and a significantly high output of 1.5 V/N.