Microarchitectured strontium doped silver niobate embedded ecoflex composite films for highly efficient box-type mechanical energy harvesters

Abstract

Understanding the increasing energy demands and probable utilization of mechanical energy harvesters, current research is highly focused on enhancing their performance/applicability in everyday life. Herein, we proposed a box-type hybrid nanogenerator (BT-HNG) consisting of acetone-dissolved microarchitectured strontium (Sr) doped silver niobate (ASNb)/ecoflex composite film as a highly efficient mechanical energy harvester. The simple and unique microarchitectured (MA) master mold was fabricated by immersing a plastic petri dish inside the acetone which was further utilized to obtain MA-composite films. The ASNb microparticles (MPs) with varying the Sr doping concentration were synthesized and further loaded inside the ecoflex film to enhance its dielectric properties. The MA-ASNb/ecoflex composite films were utilized as a negative triboelectric material and copper as a positive triboelectric material for the fabrication of HNG operating in a contact-separation mode. The ASNb filler concentration inside the ecoflex film was optimized in the aspect of Sr doping and filler concentrations to obtain the highest electricity from respective HNG. The highly efficient and stable electrical output produced by the HNG was further utilized to power various small-scale electronics. The BT-HNG producing unique direct current electrical output was developed by integrating five similar HNGs in it. The enhancement in the electrical output with successive addition of each HNG was thoroughly investigated. The proposed BT-HNG was successfully demonstrated as a real-time sensor that can be utilized to turn on the lamps situated at stairs, corridors, etc. in human presence. The enclosed BT-HNG along with a heavy weighing block was demonstrated to harvest vibrational/linear movements into electricity.