Engineering triboelectric nanogenerators for biomedical and environmental applications

Abstract

This dissertation is a record of the work completed during the 9 months attachment with Dr.Yong Ken Tye’s research group at school of EEE, Nanyang Technological University. The aim of the master thesis project is the fabrication and characterization of triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG) based microfluidics devices for environmental sensing and biomedical applications. This master thesis project involved research on self-powered heavy metal ion sensors. The activities mainly focussed on design, fabrication and testing of the proposed electrochemical sensor. Fabrication process of the device comprised of photolithography and soft-lithography methods and metal deposition for patterning the electrodes of the nanogenerator on transparent substrate. Characterization of the device was carried out after fabrication to investigate the triboelectric effects at the microfluidic interfaces. The measurements were recorded with the goal of determining the electrical characteristics of the sensor and its dependence on various external parameters. Data analysis and interpretation provided a deeper understanding of the physical process involved. Finite element simulations were done to visualize the electrostatic potential and fluid velocity distributions in the device and their correlation with the experimental results. Finally, spectroscopy techniques were utilized to confirm the operation of the chip with a functionalized channel and experiments were repeated to compare the performance of the modified chip with the original chip.