Influence of Laser Wavelength in Simultaneous Patterning of Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene and Copper Electrode Surface Towards Performance Enhancement of Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are promising cost-effective energy harvesters useful to scavenge vibration or mechanical movements from various domains. Ranging from condition monitoring of machines to motion sensing of humans, its applications are enormous in the internet of things scenario. Enhancing the performance of small-sized TENGs is of great demand, and pulsed laser-assisted texturing is an efficient and proven method to enhance the output of energy harvesters. This work studies simultaneous laser patterning of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) dielectric material and the underneath copper electrode with three different wavelengths (355, 532, and 1064 nm) of the Nd3+:YAG laser and the device's electrical performance is analyzed. The maximum enhancement is observed in the case of 355 nm laser-assisted patterning on FEP and Cu electrode with a laser fluence of 10 J cm−2. The improvement is least in the case of 1064 nm laser-assisted patterning. Laser patterning on the underlying electrode with this new approach is able to produce an enhancement in the TENG output. However, patterning on the FEP top surface is critical in the process. © 2023 Wiley-VCH GmbH.