Ag Nanoparticle-Incorporated Natural Rubber for Mechanical Energy Harvesting Application

Pawanrat Suphasorn; Intuorn Appamato; Viyada Harnchana; Prasit Thongbai; Chalathorn Chanthad; Chomsri Siriwong; Vittaya Amornkitbamrung

doi:10.3390/molecules26092720

Ag Nanoparticle-Incorporated Natural Rubber for Mechanical Energy Harvesting Application

Molecules. 2021 May 6;26(9):2720. doi: 10.3390/molecules26092720.

Authors

Pawanrat Suphasorn¹, Intuorn Appamato¹, Viyada Harnchana^{2

3}, Prasit Thongbai^{2

3}, Chalathorn Chanthad⁴, Chomsri Siriwong⁵, Vittaya Amornkitbamrung^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Materials Science and Nanotechnology Program, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
² Department of Physics, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
³ Institute of Nanomaterials Research and Innovation for Energy (IN-RIE), NANOTEC-KKU RNN on Nanomaterials Research and Innovation for Energy, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
⁴ National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC), NSTDA, 111 Thailand Science Park, Paholyothin Road, KlongLuang, Pathum Thani 12120, Thailand.
⁵ Materials Chemistry Research Center, Department of Chemistry and Center of Excellence for Innovation in Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.

Abstract

The energy conversion performance of the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a function of triboelectric charges which depend on the intrinsic properties of materials to hold charges or the dielectric properties of triboelectric materials. In this work, Ag nanoparticles were synthesized and used to incorporate into natural rubber (NR) in order to enhance the dielectric constant for enhancing the electrical output of TENG. It was found that the size of Ag nanoparticles was reduced with the increasing CTAB concentration. Furthermore, the CTAB surfactant helped the dispersion of metallic Ag nanoparticles in the NR-insulating matrix, which promoted interfacial polarization that affected the dielectric properties of the NR composite. Ag nanoparticle-incorporated NR films exhibited an improved dielectric constant of up to almost 40% and an enhanced TENG performance that generated the highest power density of 262.4 mW/m².

Keywords: Ag nanoparticles; dielectric constant; energy harvesting; natural rubber.