Deve lopment of Layered Double Hydroxide and PDMS-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Efficient Nano Energy Harvesting

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.