Transparent triboelectric generators based on glass and polydimethylsiloxane

Abstract

Glasses are widely used in modern society, mostly for achieving brightness for buildings, transportations etc. Here a transparent triboelectric generator (TEG) based on commercially available glasses and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) plates is proposed and fabricated to harvest mechanical energy. Using flat glass and PDMS plates, an open voltage, short-circuit current and power up to 850V, 20.6μA and 3.13mW are achieved for devices with 5cm×5cm dimension, whereas the transparency of glass and PDMS structures exceeds 81% and 89%, respectively. The TEGs show excellent mechanical stability and reliability upon cyclical contact for 10,000 times. The voltage and power outputs of the glass based TEGs improve with increasing contact force, frequency and distance, and with decreasing glass thickness and humidity level. Our results demonstrate the feasibility to utilize abundant glass windows to fabricate transparent TEGs for energy harvesting, which could make a great contribution to the sustainable development.