An Integrated Flexible Harvester Coupled Triboelectric and Piezoelectric Mechanisms Using PDMS/MWCNT and PVDF

This paper describes the design, fabrication, and characterization of an integrated flexible energy harvester with triboelectric and piezoelectric hybrid mechanisms. The double-side tribological layers are polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and PDMS/multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) carbon nanotube, respectively, which works at triboelectric mechanism. The Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) film with double-side Al electrodes is bonded with PDMS layer to form the functional layer of piezoelectric harvester. The dimension of the fabricated prototype is 15 mm × 10 mm × 5 mm. The experiments at the varied frequencies from 1 to 5 Hz are conducted to characterize the performance of the harvester under the tapping force of 5 N. The output voltages from triboelectric and piezoelectric harvester are 30 and 6.5 V at 5 Hz, respectively. The maximum output power from triboelectric one is ~3.4 μW under the matched resistance of 15 MΩ. While the maximum power from piezoelectric one was ~0.12 μW at 1 MΩ.