Journal Home > Volume 9 , Issue 5

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a simple and cost effective device that converts ambient mechanical energy into electricity based on the surface contact electrification of thin films. The limited surface charge density may affect the overall performance of the TENG. In this paper, a novel electret film based TENG (E-TENG) fabricated by corona charging is proposed that greatly enhances the effective surface charge density of the thin films as compared to those subjected to contact electrification. The short-circuit current, transferred electric charge density, and open-circuit voltage of the E-TENG have been investigated, using different corona charging voltages, pinpoint distances and times in order to explore the optimum experimental conditions. The short-circuit current, transferred electric charge density, and open-circuit voltage of the E-TENG are found to be about seven times larger than those of the ordinary polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) film based TENG. Based on corona charging, several multilayered E-TENGs have been fabricated, and the short-circuit current, transferred electric charge density, and open-circuit voltage of the E-TENGs with different number of layers are studied for achieving optimal performances. This work offers an effective approach for improving the effective surface charge density and thereby increasing the output capability of the TENG, which would greatly promote TENG applications in self-powered portable electronics and sensor networks.

Video
nr-9-5-1442_ESM_Video S1.avi
File
nr-9-5-1442_ESM.pdf (1.8 MB)
Publication history
Copyright
Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 12 October 2015
Revised: 02 February 2016
Accepted: 04 February 2016
Published: 29 September 2016
Issue date: May 2016

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

The project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51475099 and 51432005), Beijing Natural Science Foundation (No. 4163077), the "thousands talents" program for the pioneer researcher and his innovation team, China, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS.

Return