Superhydrophobic Water-Solid Contact Triboelectric Generator by Simple Spray-On Fabrication Method

Energy harvesting is a method of converting energy from ambient environment into useful electrical energy. Due to the increasing number of sensors and personal electronics, energy harvesting technologies from various sources are gaining attention. Among energy-harvesting technologies, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) was introduced as a device that can effectively generate electricity from mechanical motions by contact-electrification. Particularly, liquid-solid contact TENGs, which use the liquid itself as a triboelectric material, can overcome the inevitable friction wear between two solid materials. Using a commercial aerosol hydrophobic spray, liquid-solid contact TENGs, with a superhydrophobic surface (contact angle over 160°) can be easily fabricated with only a few coating processes. To optimize the fabrication process, the open-circuit voltage of sprayed superhydrophobic surfaces was measured depending on the number of coating processes. To demonstrate the simple fabrication and applicability of this technique on random 3D surfaces, a liquid-solid contact TENG was fabricated on the brim of a cap (its complicated surface structure is due to the knitted strings). This simple sprayed-on superhydrophobic surface can be a possible solution for liquid-solid contact TENGs to be mass produced and commercialized in the future.