Experiment and parametric analysis of sliding mode triboelectric energy harvester

Triboelectric energy harvester may be used to power small electronic devices for many applications such as temperature and humidity sensors, accelerometers, and GPS tracking devices. This paper has developed the theoretical model of sliding mode triboelectric energy harvester to predict the harvested energy due to mechanical vibration/motion. The model has been solved using the 4th order Runge–Kutta Method. An experimental setup has been fabricated to validate the numerical results. Numerical results reveal that harvested energy depends upon various input factors like the type of motion, external resistance, contact area, width, and dielectric thickness. A parametric study has been presented to maximize the harvested energy with an average acceleration of 35 m/s² between the triboelectric films (PTFE and Nylon with contact area 10 cm × 10 cm), maximum current, and a voltage obtained is 0.6 µA & 3 V, respectively, and 10 LEDs are lightened. Further, a comparison study has been carried out between contact mode TEH and sliding mode TEH to predict the better mode of energy harvesting.