Abstract:
The energy harvesting of the trib oelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) stan ds as a prag matic
energy harvesting system capable of powerin g itself withou t ext ern al power sources but
progress to ward s commercialization h as been limited due to ch allen ges like low en ergy
conversion efficiency and material depend en cy. In this work, the challenges stated are
tackled in t he developmen t of a composite TENG made of Lay ered doub le hy droxide
(LDH) an d po lydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) material. The LDH was synthesized using
hydrothermal meth od t hat resu lted to nanostru ctu re poro us mat erial with high surface
area. Syn thesis of Zn Al-LDH was done through X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and was ab le to
show cry stalline structure and Scan ning Electro n Microscopy (SEM) was used to provide
in sight o n the morph olog y enhancement o f the material. Th ere was sign ificant increase
on the electrical performance of t he co mposite ZnAl-LDH/PDMS TENG when co mp ared
to pristin e PDMS with output vo ltages increasing from 25 V to 30 V and short-circuit
current from 20 µA to 40 µA. Surface rou ghness and charge storage capacity contribu ted
to the improvemen t in trib oelectric performance which was modu lated by the ZnAl-LDH
template and hence improved the charge generation and throu ghput durin g th e con tactseparatio n mechanism. It was further demonstrated t hat the Zn Al-LDH/PDMS TENG,
when paired with a 4.7µF capacitor, su ccessfully charged it to 100V within one h und red
seconds, h ighligh ting its po tential as an energy storag e device. Th e ab ility to co mb ine
PDMS and ZnAl-LDH resulted in a sy nergistic effect that enhanced energy conversion as
well as the durability of the devices. T he aim of this stud y has been to create a lo w-cost
and efficien t energy harvester device wh ich cou ld help in addressing increasin g energy
needs. A triboelectric nanog en erato r (TENG) was fabricated fo r energy harvesting an d
demon strated as a step-sensing device. The poly mers and templates employed can be
customized to meet emerging d emands, such as powering small-scale electronics o r
scaling u p for in dustrial energ y harvesting applications. Further research may focus on
optimizin g LDH co mpositions and ad vancing the scalability of this technology to
enhance the v ersatility and efficiency of TENGs in energy h arvesting systems.
