Single-Step Fluorocarbon Plasma Treatment-Induced Wrinkle Structure for High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been thought to be a promising method to harvest energy from environment. To date, the utilization of surface structure and material modification has been considered the most effective way to increase its performance. In this work, a wrinkle structure based high-performance TENG is presented. Using the fluorocarbon plasma treatment method, material modification and surface structure are introduced in one step. The output ability of TENG is dramatically enhanced. After the optimization of plasma treatment, the maximum current and surface charge density are 182 μA about 165 μC m(-2). Compared with untreated TENG, the wrinkle structure makes the current and surface charge density increase by 810% and 528%, separately. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is employed to analyze the chemical modification mechanism of this fluorocarbon plasma treatment. Facilitated by its high output performance, this device could directly light 76 blue light emitting diodes under finger typing. The output electric energy could be stored then utilized to power a commercial calculator. As a result of the simple fabrication process and high output ability, devices fabricated using this method could bring forward practical applications using TENGs as power sources.

Keywords: energy harvesting; fluorocarbon plasma treatments; triboelectric nanogenerators; wrinkle structures.