Flexible and Stretchable Triboelectric Nanogenerator Devices

Toward Self-powered Systems

Mengdi Han, Xiaosheng Zhang, Haixia Zhang, Haixia Zhang, Xiaosheng Zhang, Mengdi Han, Haixia Zhang, Xiaosheng Zhang, Mengdi Han

• Publisher: Wiley-VCH
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9783527345724
• eBook ISBN: 9783527820160
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Materials Science
• Index: Technology & Engineering

The book starts with the fundamentals of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), and continues through to fabrication technologies to achieve flexible and stretchable. Then self-powered flexible microsystems are introduced and application examples are presented, including TENG-based active sensors, TENG-powered actuators, artificial intelligence and integrated systems.

Part I
Fundamentals of Triboelectric Nanogenerator

1
Overview of Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Xiaosheng Zhang

University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, No. 2006, Xiyuan Ave, West Hi‐Tech Zone, Chengdu, 611731, P.R. China

Ambient energy is abundant in the environment and takes various forms, such as solar irradiation [1], thermal gradient [2], mechanical deformation [3], and so on, which can be converted into electricity using ambient energy‐harvesting techniques [4]. The approach to harvesting energy from the environment is one of the ideal solutions to respond to the energy demands of distributed autonomous microsystems, which should be sustainable, renewable, and of high performance [4]. Ambient energy‐harvesting technology provides an attractive future vision to realize fully integrated self‐powered microsystems that overcome the drawbacks of batteries, which currently need to be frequently replaced, or of laying out long wires for power supply [5]. In 2012, a new ambient energy‐harvesting mechanism named triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was developed by combining the triboelectrification effect and electrostatic induction [6,7]. This novel technology has proved to be a robust power source to directly power commercial electronics and even regular light bulbs [7]. There has been a remarkable growth of TENG research in the past years due to its unique properties, including high‐output performance, cleanness, sustainability, etc. [8,9]. Mechanical energy from sources such as wind, raindrops, and ocean waves, as well as body motions can be efficiently converted to electric power using TENGs. Therefore, this chapter summarizes the current progress of microenergy technologies and then introduces an overview of TENG.

1.1 Energy Crisis of Microsystems

In the past half century, as the benefit of the rapid development of electronic science and technology, human society gradually changed to automation, both intelligent and digitization, and various electronic devices have become part of our life and are distributed everywhere. The featured size of modern electronic devices becomes smaller year by year down to the millimeter, and even to micrometer levels, which induces a continuous decrease in power consumption down to milliwatts and even to microwatts. Consequently, the great reforms in small‐size and low‐power consumption promote the integration of multifunctional electronic devices to realize microsystems.

Microsystems experienced a blooming development in the past decades resulting from their unique features, i.e. portable, smart, and miniature. However, the further development of microsystems suffered several critical challenges, especially the exploration of appropriate power sources. At present, batteries are still the first option, especially some of the flexible batteries, but the problems of sustainability and pollution caused by batteries cannot be ignored. In the meantime, distributed autonomous microsystems also have some new energy demands such as sustainability, renewability, high performance, and even flexibility or stretchability.

As an essential example of microsystems, Internet of things (IoT) is expected to play an important role in economic and social development of the next generation, as shown in Figure 1.1. Thus, IoT is taken as an example to describe the energy crisis of microsystems [10].

Figure 1.1 Schematic view of the Internet of things (IoT) and its power supply requirements. It is of great significance for t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Part I: Fundamentals of Triboelectric Nanogenerator
• Part II: Approaches to Flexible and Stretchable Device
• Part III: Self-Powered Smart System
• Part IV: Applications of Flexible and Stretchable Self-Powered Smart System
• Index
• End User License Agreement