Effect of surface treatment on electrical properties of polydimethylsiloxane based triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract

This research investigated the effect of surface treatment on electrical properties of flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) was used as triboelectric layer. The PDMS pads were prepared by simple casting method and the effect of surface treatments by heat and acid was examined. Physical morphology of treated samples were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Electrical properties were measured under continuous periodic knocking. The results revealed that the heat-treated PDMS-based TENG showed the outstanding output voltage. The maximum output voltage of heat-treated based TENG reached approximately 9 V, which was over 4 times larger than those of normal PDMS based TENG. The research demonstrated the feasibility to utilize PDMS-based TENG as an energy harvesting device and presented a cost-effective method for producing high-efficiency PDMS based TENG.