Development of Thermal Nanoimprinting Process for the Fabrication of Tailored-Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

Recently, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), working based on triboelectric effect and electrical induction, emerge as one kind of energy harvesting technology. The TENG is mainly composed of dielectric layer where frictional contact occurs and conductive layer where current flows. Because of the characteristic of triboelectric effect, strategies to make efficient TENG are focused on material selection and effective contact area increment. Given materials, micro/nanostructure fabrication corresponds to the latter strategy. Several fabrication methods are already reported such as surface etching with nanoparticle and surface replication, but they require high fabrication cost. Furthermore, they need additional process such as integration micro/nanotophographical layer with conductive layer, resulting in a multistep fabrication. The fabrication environment hinders high productivity and commercialization of TENG. In this study, we used thermal nanoimprinting to fabricate a transparent and flexible TENG named a Pattern Assisted TriboElectric Replicable Nanogenerator (PATERN). From the method, we can achieve nanostructure replication and integration with conductive layer simultaneously, which are two essential steps to fabricate high performance TENG. The fabrication cycle was within 6 min. The PATERN has maximum transmittance about 88% at the 850-1600 nm range, and bending radius about 3.2 mm. From modifying the shape of electrode layer, we can also achieve a bi-directional mechanical energy harvesting ability, which is essential for efficiently harvest the energy from complex real mechanical motions. Given that TENG can be cost-effectively fabricated by utilizing conventionally available films (less than $1) with fast fabrication process, we believed the technology lead a new concept of disposable TENG and its accompanying application, such as hybrid energy harvester or biomechanical energy harvester. Figure 1