Development of the nanoimprinting-poling process to simultaneously control functionalities of polymers for boosted electrical generation of triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract

Energy harvester called triboelectric nanogenerator that convert mechanical energy from an ambient environment to electrical energy has been growing topic of interest as promising means of generating electrical power for mobile system applications and micro devices without using wiring from an external power source. With the exception of principle of mechanisms, another topic of interest is improvement of electrical output performance of TENG. This study suggests that the innovative one-step strategy, which is a combined process of thermal nanoimprinting and poling (called as a NP-process) to significantly enhance the electrical output performance of the TENG by using ferroelectric thermoplastic polymer (P(VDF-TrFE)). The novelty of the present NP-process is that the simultaneous achievement of the alignment of the dipoles and formation of the surface topography, which play synergetic roles to enhance the electrical output performance of the resultant TENG, can be simultaneously and rapidly achieved through the one-step fabrication process. Based on the effect of the NP-process, the formation of surface topography and alignment of internal dipoles are successfully achieved. After the confirmation of effect of the NP-process, process parameters which affect the NP-process are verified. Finally, The TENG under the NP-process (called NP-TENG) shows the highest electrical output performance compared with other samples. The VOC and ISC of the NP50-TENG can reach to 400 V and 135 μA, respectively, which imply that both the VOC and ISC can be increased by 660 % and 1300 %, respectively, with application of the present NP-process. We hope our work to be a good example of fabrication energy-boosted TENG in an effective and simple method.