Recent studies have focused on enhancing the efficiency of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using aluminum (Al) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This research investigates how surface morphology and material structure affect energy generation. By layering PDMS/Al and creating pyramid-shaped patterns, the study found that increasing the number of PDMS/Al layers significantly boosts the output voltage, reaching over 234 mV with three layers. Additionally, increasing the number of pyramid structures from 1 to 36 on PDMS surfaces, while maintaining the same contact area, led to a notable rise in generated voltage due to charge concentration at the pyramid tips. Higher pyramid angles also amplified this effect. These results highlight the importance of structural optimization in maximizing the energy output of TENGs, offering a promising route for more efficient energy harvesting.
Mechanoluminescence (ML) is a phenomenon where the application of mechanical force to ML materials generates an electric field and produces light, holding significant promise as an eco-friendly technology. However, challenges in commercializing ML technology has arisen due to its low brightness and short luminous lifetime. To address this, in this work, we enhance ML efficiency by mixing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) into a ZnS: Cu embedded in a polydimethylsiloxane composite ML device. The inclusion of CNTs boosts ML intensity by 98% compared to devices without CNTs, as the increasing CNT fraction elevates conductivity, thereby amplifying ML intensity. However, this increase in CNT fraction also leads to enhanced light absorption within the device. Consequently, we observe a trend where ML intensity rises initially but declines beyond a CNT fraction of 0.0015 wt%. Based on these findings, we anticipate that our research will make valuable contributions to the advancement of electrical powerless mechanoluminescent technology.
We fabricated highly flexible Mn-doped SnO2 (MTO)/Ag/MTO/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)/MTO multilayer transparent conducting films. To reduce refractive-index mismatching of the MTO/Ag/MTO/polyethylene terephthalate (PET), index-matching layers were inserted between the oxide-metal-oxide-structured films and the PET substrate. The PDMS layer was deposited by spin-coating after adjusting the mixing ratio of PDMS and hexane. We investigated the effects of the index-matching layer on the color and reflectance differences with different PDMS dilution ratios. As the dilution ratio increased from 1:100 to 1:130, the color difference increased slightly, while the reflectance difference decreased from 0.62 to 0.32. The MTO/Ag/MTO/PDMS/MTO film showed a transmittance of 87.18~87.68% at 550 nm. The highest value of the Haacke figure of merit was 47.54×10-3 Ω-1 for the dilution ratio of 1:130.
A study on capacitive characteristics of stylus pen for touch panel are progressed in this paper. Also the main factors for capacitive sensitivity are studied. Namely, highly sensitive stylus pen which can be applied to capacitive touch panel are studied based on the analysis of materials and process conditions regardless of pattern shapes. Stylus pen was made of PDMS(Poly-Di-Methyl-Siloxane) and conductive metal powders which does not damage the touch panel surface. We tried to get the advantages of both the properties of soft PDMS and conductive metal powders. We found that potential difference of capacitance change with conductivity of the composite materials(PDMS + metal powders) it implies that during touch process, large voltage difference can be caused by the high conductive materials of stylus pen. Stylus pen made by PDMS with mixed with Ag powders which has large conductivity shows more capacitance change of 1 pF than PDMS with other materials of Ni or C powders.