INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENERGY RESEARCH

Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297

Published online 7 August 2015 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/er.3376

Fabrication of PDMS-based triboelectric nanogenerator

for self-sustained power source application
So-Yoon Shin1,, Balasubramaniam Saravanakumar1,, Ananthakumar Ramadoss2 and
Sang Jae Kim1,2,3,*,
1
Nanomaterials and System Lab, Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Engineering College, Jeju National University, Jeju
690-756, Republic of Korea
2
Nanomaterials and System Lab, Faculty of Applied Energy System, Science and Engineering College, Jeju National University, Jeju
690-756, Republic of Korea
3
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0245, USA

SUMMARY
In this report, we present a simple approach to fabricate the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based triboelectric
nanogenerator (TENG) that can be effectively harvest irregular mechanical energy and the energy used to drive a small
commercial electronic component. The device exhibited the maximum open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of
6.3 V and 0.635 A respectively, with maximum output power of 178 nW. In addition, we measured the performance of
the fabricated device with different load resistance. Finally, the fabricated PDMS-based triboelectric nanogenerator can
directly drive 10 commercial LEDs connected in series, when the force is applied to the device through nger. These
results demonstrate the potential application of PDMS-based triboelectric nanogenerator for self-powered systems.
Copyright 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

KEY WORDS
triboelectric nanogenerator; PDMS; roughness; energy harvesting; self-powered systems

Correspondence
*Sang Jae Kim, Nanomaterials and System Lab, Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Engineering College, Jeju National Univer-
sity, Jeju 690-756, Republic of Korea.

E-mail: kimsangj@jejunu.ac.kr

These authors contributed equally.

Received 29 November 2014; Revised 24 June 2015; Accepted 30 June 2015

1. INTRODUCTION convert into electrical energy by using different mecha-

In recent years, searching and developing for sustainable, re-
newable and green energy has been one of the most impor-
tant tasks for scientists and researchers to address the
rapidly increasing energy crises and global warming [13].
The energy harvesting from ambient environment such as
solar, wind, thermal, chemical and mechanical energy has
attracted a huge attention in the scientic community be-
cause of available everywhere in enormously, and as well
as it can be used as a self-powered device for sustainable
operation of devices without use of a battery [47]. Among
them, harvesting mechanical energy from our living
environment is widely considered to be one of the most
promising approaches to provide a clean and green energy
source for self-powered devices, such as wireless sensor
networks, implanted medical devices, nanorobotics,
security applications and portable/wearable personal elec-
tronics [812]. The mechanical energy can be directly
nisms such as piezoelectric, triboelectric, electromagnetic
and electrostatic [1322].
Among the conversion methods, nanogenerator (NG)
has been developed to convert the low frequency mechan-
ical energy into electricity though piezoelectric and tribo-
electrication processes, and they have been demonstrated
to power a small electronic devices [2329]. The vibration
energy is enormous and available everywhere at any time.
The harvesting energy is small but it has the potential to
operate wearable and portable devices without an external
power. Basically, piezoelectric nanogenerator (PNG) de-
pends on the piezoelectric potential which created by an
externally applied force on the piezoelectric material,
which drives the ow of electrons in the external load
[3033]. Since, PNG have been developed to efciently
convert small scale mechanical energy into electricity and
used as a power source for diverse applications. However,
the present piezoelectric nanogenerator mainly based on

288 Copyright 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator
piezoelectric property (Piezo-charge coefcient (d33, d31),
electro-mechanical conversion coefcient (k) and leakage
current), materials constraint and need of sophisticated facili-
ties, which are the limiting factors for PNG. To overcome this
problem, todays research focuses on developing a cost-
effective and robust triboelectric nanogenerator.
Generally, the TENG operated based on the contact
electrication and electrostatic induction [18,26,27]. Be-
cause of its simple operation, low cost, availability of
variety of materials, higher performance and high adapt-
ability (ease of integration), it has wide range applications
such as wireless systems, portable/wearable electronics
and self-powered systems [19,29,34,35]. Although it has
been reported that a variety of materials are used in TENG,
it still has its limitations. To achieve higher output perfor-
mance, choosing the materials and varying the surface mor-
phology are key parameters. Therefore, great efforts have
been devoted to design and fabricate a high-performance
TENG for sustainable operation of electronic systems.
In the present work, we have fabricated the triboelectric
nanogenerator by PDMS polymer with different surface
roughness morphology using sand paper and studied the ef-
fects on their nanogenerator performance when they were
used in tribo-electrication process. Under mechanical de-
formation, TENG (320 C) generated an open-circuit voltage
(Voc) of 6.3 V and short-circuit current (Isc) 0.635 A. The
Figure 1. (a) Schematic illustration of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) fabrication process. Inset shows the digital photograph of
fabricated TENG. (b) Digital image of the fabricated real device with different PDMS surface roughnesses.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
S.-Y. Shin et al.
obtained output power is enough to light up 10 green and
blue light-emitting diodes (LED) connected in series. Fur-
ther, we have studied in detail about the power output of
the device with respect to different surface morphologies of
PDMS layer and as well as the varied separation distance.
2. EXPERIMENTAL METHODS
2.1. Preparation and characterization of
PDMS layer with different surface
morphologies
The PDMS solution was prepared by mixing the Sylgard
184 elastomer with curing agent in 10:1 proportion. Fur-
ther to dilute, we added 1 ml of methyl chloride to above
solution and mixed well and then kept in vacuum for
30 min to remove air bubbles from PDMS. After that, the
prepared solution was coated onto different graded sandpa-
pers (grade: 120, 220 and 320 C) and cured at 60 C for
12 h. The cured PDMS layer was peeled off from the sand-
papers and attached with ITO coated PET substrate. The
surface morphology and topography of the fabricated
PDMS layer were characterized by eld emission scanning
electron microscopy (FE-SEM, JSM-6700F, JEOL Ltd,
2 kV) and atomic force microscopy (AFM).
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S.-Y. Shin et al. PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator

2.2. Preparation of silver nanoparticles 2.3. Fabrication of triboelectric

The Ag nanoparticles were prepared by chemical reduction
method. In typical procedure, 1 ml of silver nitrate (0.1 M)
was dissolved in 20 ml of de-ionized water with 0.02 g of
cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a stabilizing
agent. After 10-min stirring, 1 ml of L-ascorbic acid
(0.1 M) was added into that solution for reduce the silver
nitrate into silver nanoparticle. Then, pH value of the solu-
tion was adjusted to 5.6 by 1 M NaOH solution, and stir-
ring was continued for another 20 min [36]. As prepared
silver nanoparticle was stored in the dark environment.
The size and morphology of the nanoparticles were ana-
lyzed through transmission electron microscopy (TEM,
JEOL JEM2100 microscope).
nanogenerator
The triboelectric nanogenerator consists of two layers; (i)
PDMS pattern on ITO substrate and (ii) Ag nanoparticles
coated on ITO substrate (spin coating method). Here, Ag
nanoparticles play a dual role to create more roughness
while contact with PDMS and act as an electrode. The
TENG was fabricated by assembling both electrodes with
different spacing distance (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 mm) using
sponge as a spacer. Finally, the device was rapped with
scotch tape to prevent the peel off problem. The mechani-
cal deformation was applied through electrodynamic
shaker (Labworks, ET-126) with different frequencies.
The electrical performance of the device was measured

Figure 2. FE-SEM images of the PDMS layer prepared using various sandpapers (a) 120, (b) 220 and (c) 320 C grade. FE-SEM images
showed the various surface roughness morphologies. (d) TEM image of silver nanoparticles. (e, f) FE-SEM image of the Ag nanopar-
ticle coated ITO substrate at lower and higher magnications.

290 Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator
through Keithley picoammeter (6485) and nanovoltmeter
(2182A) without any external bias.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The fabrication process of triboelectric nanogenerator was
schematically represented in Figure 1a. First, the Ag nano-
particle was deposited over ITO substrate by a simple spin
coating process. Second, the fabricated different roughness
PDMS layer was attached on another ITO substrate using a
thin layer of PDMS. Finally, the TENG was assembled
with spacer (inner distance 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 mm). Here,
the sponge is used as a spacer between the two electrodes,
which is easy to control the inner distance and also return
to its original position, when releasing force. The inset of
Figure 1a shows the digital image of the prepared PDMS
layer. The digital image of the fabricated triboelectric
Figure 3. Topographic AFM images of different microstructured PDMS, (a, b) 2D and 3D image of 120 C, (c, d) 2D and 3D image of
220 C and (e, f) 2D and 3D image of 330 C.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
S.-Y. Shin et al.
nanogenerator with different surface roughnesses (120, 220
and 320 C) was shown in Figure 1b.
Figure 2 shows the FE-SEM images of different surface
roughnesses of PDMS layer, which were created through
different grade sandpapers (120, 220 and 320 C). It can
be observed changes in the surface morphology of PDMS
layer coated on 120 (Figure 2a), 220 (Figure 2b) and
320 C (Figure 2c) sandpapers in terms of roughness. The
contact area increases (lower roughness) in the order of
320 > 220 > 120 C grade sandpaper. Here, the contact area
(morphology) plays an important role for enhancing the
electrical output performance of the triboelectric nanogenerator.
Figure 2d displays the typical TEM image of Ag nanoparticles.
It revealed that relatively uniform, spherical, un-agglomerated
and mono-dispersed Ag nanoparticles were formed with the di-
ameter of ~30 nm. To improve the surface roughness and con-
tact electrication area of the ITO electrode, we have coated
chemically prepared Ag nanoparticle over the ITO surface
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S.-Y. Shin et al.
through spin-coating method. We have measured the FE-SEM
measurement to conrm the coating of Ag nanoparticle over
the ITO surface, which is illustrated in Figure 2e and f. The
FE-SEM results clearly indicate the coating of nanoparticle
over the surface of ITO.
Further, we have measured the surface roughness of the
PDMS surface using the atomic force microscope (AFM).
All the samples showed irregular surface with different
roughnesses, which is shown in Figure 3. The roughness
(Ra) of the samples increased in the manner of 120
(17 nm) < 220 (8 nm) < 320 C (1 nm), which is clearly
evident from the 3D topographic image of Figure 3b, 3d
and 3e, and it corresponds to 120, 220 and 320 C samples.
The electrical output of the TENG was mainly dependent
on the surface roughness of the contact surface. The sur-
face roughness of the PDMS was changed according to
sandpaper grade (template). So obviously, the electrical
output of the TENG is also different because of variation
in contact electrication area (roughness).
The working mechanism of the fabricated TENG is
schematically represented in Figure 4. The fabricated de-
vice works based on the effects of contact electrication
and electrostatic induction [37,38]. At initial stage, there
is no electric charge (potential) generated on the two
tribo-surfaces (Figure 4a). The two tribo-surfaces were
Figure 4. The electricity generation process of TENG. (a) Original position without external force. (b) External force makes ITO and
PDMS layer to contact. (c) Reduced force brings separation. (d) Original state has triboelectric charges. (e) The force causes contact
and electrons movement.
292
PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator
separated by a distance d through sponge spacer. When
an external force is applied to the top of the device, the
two surfaces are brought into contact each other (Figure
4b), which results in the tribo-charge (negative) generation
(resulting in charge transfer between them) and distribution
over the PDMS surfaces (based on triboelectric series)
because of the presence of nanometer scale roughness.
The negative charge over the PDMS surface induced the
positive charges at the interface between the ITO and
PDMS for charge neutrality. When releasing the force,
the two surfaces are separated by distance d, which
generates the potential gradient between the top and
bottom ITO electrodes (Figure 4c). The existence of poten-
tial difference in the top and bottom electrode drives the
electron (bottom to top electrode) through external circuit
to attain electrostatic equilibrium state, which is repre-
sented in Figure 4d. This whole process generates the
positive peaks in the voltage and current measurement.
Next applied force cycle makes the contact once again
between the top and bottom charged layers, which breaks
the electrostatic equilibrium. Until it reaches the new
equilibrium state, the electron will ow back to the bottom
electrode, which generates negative peaks in the voltage
and current (Figure 4e). Figure 4b represents the device
new equilibrium state.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator S.-Y. Shin et al.

The typical output performance of as-fabricated TENG
was systematically studied by periodically pressing and re-
leasing at a controlled frequency and amplitude. Figure 5a
and 5b shows the output performance (open-circuit voltage
and short-circuit current) of the TENG fabricated with dif-
ferent surface roughness morphologies. It could be ob-
served that lower surface roughness based TENG (320 C)
delivered a best performance (higher open circuit voltage
and short-circuit current) among the three different
roughness-based devices. The maximum open circuit
voltage and short-circuit current of TENG (320 C) are
6.3 V and 0.635 A, at 1-mm inner spacer distance, respec-
tively. The higher output performance of the 320 C-TENG
is mainly because of the lower surface roughness (1 nm),
which meant higher contact electrication at the same de-
vice area. The lower surface roughness lm provides higher
contact electrication to achieving higher output voltage.
Moreover, we also investigated the effect of inner dis-
tance (spacer distance) on the output performance of fabri-
cated TENG. The average output of open-circuit voltage
and short-circuit current of different inner spacer distances
is depicted in Figure 5c and 5d. The output performance of
the triboelectric nanogenerator also depends on the separa-
tion between two triboelectric layers. Because of existence
of separation, a potential difference develops between the
two triboelectric layers.

Figure 5. Electrical measurement of TENG. (a) Open-circuit voltage and (b) short-circuit current of TENG with different PDMS layers.
(c) Average open-circuit voltage and (d) short-circuit current of different inner distance (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 mm). (e) Dependence of the
voltage and current output on the external resistance. (f) The external load resistance dependence of electrical power.

Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 293
DOI: 10.1002/er
S.-Y. Shin et al. PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Let us consider the fabricated triboelectric nanogenerator
as parallel-plate capacitor, in which two charged triboelectric
layers are separated by the spacer.
Simply, the output voltage of the triboelectric nano-
generator is expressed as,
V d=o (1)
where, is the charge density over the triboelectric layer
(PDMS), d is the spacing between two triboelectric layer
(separator) and 0 is the vacuum permittivity. As per
equation 1, the output voltage will increase with increasing
the separation distance. But our results showed the opposite
trend, which may be because of ineffective contact
between the two triboelectric layers under the mechanical
deformation and which is supported by previous report
[39]. The longer distance takes more time to contact, and
it makes the decay of charge carriers from the triboelectric
surfaces. The results reveal that both the average current
and voltage decrease with increasing inner spacer distance
of the device which is because of the smaller effective
contact area for charging and effective separation distance
between two charged layers while increasing the inner
spacer distance.
To further investigate the effective output power of the
as-fabricated TENG (320 C), the resistors were connected

Figure 6. Performance of the fabricated triboelectric nanogenerator under different frequencies, (a) open-circuit voltage and (b) short-
circuit current. Long-term mechanical stability test under the frequency of 10 Hz, the measured (c) open-circuit voltage, (d) short-circuit
current. FE-SEM image of Ag nanoparticle coated ITO substrate after mechanical stability test, (e) lower magnication and (f) enlarged
(higher) image.

294 Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
PDMS-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator
as an external load in parallel connection. Figure 5e shows
the output performance of PDMS-based TENG under dif-
ferent external loads at external applied force frequency
of 10 Hz and degree of deformation (1 mm). As shown in
Figure 5e the maximum current decreases with an increas-
ing of external load resistance from 1 k to 800 M be-
cause of the Ohmic loss, while the voltage across the
load followed an opposite trend. Accordingly, the prompt
output power as a function of load resistance is shown in
Figure 5f. The maximum output power of 178 nW was
achieved at a load resistance of 10 M. This result sug-
gests that the PDMS-based TENG runs efciently, if the
load has a resistance of several M.
To show the frequency dependence of output perfor-
mance of the triboelectric nanogenerator, we have mea-
sured at different frequencies such as 5, 10 and 15 Hz.
Figure 6a and 6b shows the open-circuit voltage and
short-circuit current of the triboelectric nanogenerator un-
der different pushing frequency. It is clearly visible that
both voltage and current were increased with increasing
frequency. At higher frequency, the time interval for
charge transfer was small, which caused incomplete charge
transfer between the triboelectric surfaces, produced addi-
tional triboelectric potential under cyclic pushing. To en-
sure the mechanical endurance of the TENG, we have
Figure 7. (a) Schematic of the energy harvesting circuit and LED display. (b, c, d) The photograph of the TENG-driven ashing of blue
and green LED display.
Int. J. Energy Res. 2016; 40:288297 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
DOI: 10.1002/er
S.-Y. Shin et al.
performed long-term operation under the frequency of
10 Hz for 2000 s. The generated output voltage and current
of the device were comparably stable until 2000 s, which
conrms that the fabricated device has higher mechanical
stability against mechanical deformation. The stability test
results are shown in Figure 6c and 6d. To check the stabil-
ity of the Ag nanoparticle coating on the ITO substrate, we
have measured the FE-SEM image after mechanical stabil-
ity test, which is shown in Figure 6e and 6f. The FE-SEM
image clearly indicating the higher number of Ag nanopar-
ticle exists over the ITO surface after mechanical stability
test (2000 s), which supports the device stable output
during mechanical stability test.
Finally, we demonstrated the practical application of the
fabricated PDMS-based TENG (320 C), which converts
irregular mechanical energy into electricity and to power
portable electronic devices. Figure 7a shows the digital
photography of LED (3BG4UC00) display under normal
condition, and the inset of Figure 7a displays the schematic
and digital photography of the energy harvesting circuit
and fabricated device. Here, 10 commercial LEDs assem-
bled in series and directly connected to TENG. The TENG
was used as a direct power source without an energy
storage system to simultaneously drive LEDs. Figure 7b
shows the photography of powering LEDs display. The
295
S.-Y. Shin et al.
inset of Figure 7b illustrates that the schematic diagram of
LEDs glows, while force is applied to the device through
nger. It could be observed that by pressing device through
nger, the TENG directly and simultaneously powers 10
LEDs successfully. For clear image we have included time
interval snapshots of glowing blue and green LEDs in Fig-
ure 7c and 7d. This result demonstrates that the fabricated
PDMS-based TENG is a promising device for self-
powered device application.
4. CONCLUSIONS
In summary, we have successfully fabricated the PDMS-
based triboelectric nanogenerator with different surface
roughness morphologies by using a facile and low-cost
method. The fabricated device effectively harvested an
irregular mechanical energy without any interruption.
Further, the detailed study suggested that the inner spacing
distance and surface roughness morphology played an
important role in the output power generation. The
PDMS-based triboelectric nanogenerator device exhibited
the maximum output power of 178 nW, which can be able
to drive the ten green and blue LEDs as power source.
These results demonstrate that the as-fabricated TENG
has potential applications in harvesting irregular mechani-
cal energy, which can be possible to apply for self-sustained
power source in wearable electronics and sensors.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by the Basic Science Re-
search Program through the National Research Foundation
of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT &
Future Planning (2013R1A2A2A01068926).
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