Triboelectric nanogenerators with gold-thin-film-coated conductive textile as floating electrode for scavenging wind energy

We report triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) composed of a flexible and cost-effective gold-coated conductive textile (CT) to convert wind energy into electricity. The Au-coated CT is employed because of its high surface roughness resulting from Au nanodots distributed on microsized fibers. Thus, the Au-coated CT with nano/microarchitecture plays an important role in enhancing the effective contact area as well as the output performance of the TENG. Moreover, the surface roughness of the Au-coated CT is controlled by adjusting the Au thermal deposition time or tailoring the diameter of the Au nanodots. At an applied wind speed of 10 m·s^–1, a wind-based TENG (W-TENG) with dimensions of 75 mm × 12 mm × 25 mm produces an open-circuit voltage (V_OC) of ~39 V and a short-circuit current (I_SC) of ~3 μA by using the airflow-induced vibrations of an optimized Au-coated CT between two flat polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) layers. To further specify the device performance, the electric output of the W-TENG is analyzed by varying several parameters such as the distance between the PDMS layer and Au-coated CT, applied wind speed, external load resistance, and surface roughness of the PDMS layers. Introducing an inverse micropyramid architecture on the PDMS layers further improves the output performance of the W-TENG, which exhibits the highest V_OC (~49 V) and I_SC (~5 μA) values at an applied wind speed of 6.8 m·s^-1. Additionally, the reliability of the W-TENG is also tested by measuring its output current during long-term cyclic operation. Furthermore, the rectified output signals observed by the W-TENG device are used as a direct power source to light 45 green commercial light-emitting diodes connected in series and also to charge capacitors (100 and 4.7 μF). Finally, the output performance of the W-TENG device in an actual windy situation is also investigated.