A sandpaper assisted micro-structured polydimethylsiloxane fabrication for human skin based triboelectric energy harvesting application

Mohammad Sala Uddin Rasel and Jae-Yeong Park

Applied Energy, 2017, vol. 206, issue C, 150-158

Abstract: This paper reports a sandpaper based inexpensive and simple fabrication process of functional micro-structured PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) film to be used as a triboelectric layer. The micro-structured PDMS film was replicated directly from the low surface energy sandpaper template without the use of any surfactant coating, high vacuum or high-pressure equipment. A human skin and PDMS interaction based triboelectric generator (TEG) is demonstrated using as-fabricated micro-structured PDMS film. In our proposed TEG harvester, electrical energy is produced by continual contact-separation processes between PDMS and human skin. Four different micro-structures were compared with flat film and the influences of surface structures on the electrical output of the harvester are systematically studied. Results show that the existence of micro-structures on the PDMS films effectively enlarges the contact area and provides more surfaces for charge storage and hence improve the output performance of TEG. The as-fabricated prototype can produce peak-peak open-circuit voltage up to 103V and 4.8mW/m2 of peak power density, which is exceptionally attractive for the fabrication of self-powered and portable devices. This stable PDMS film with functional micro-structures, which is fabricated using reusable sandpaper template facilitates robust and large-scale fabrication, and has potential for future applications in triboelectric energy harvesting devices.

Keywords: Inexpensive fabrication; Sandpaper template; Micro-structured PDMS; Human skin; Triboelectric generator (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:206:y:2017:i:c:p:150-158

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.07.109

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