ZIF-67-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator Fabricated Through EHD Printing: Performance Evaluation as an Energy Harvesting Device and Its Pressure-Sensing Application

Self-sensing electronics need an instantaneous power generation source that is durable and battery-free. Triboelectric Nanogenerators (TENG), due to their miniature size, robust instantaneous power generation, and duality, can fill the gap of self-sensing battery-free electronic applications. Here, we present a miniature 32 cm² ZIF-67/polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) TENG as a potential instantaneous energy source. Herein, a ZIF-67/PVDF TENG was fabricated using the Electrohydrodynamic (E.H.D) method. The structural and morphological study of the room-temperature synthesized ZIF-67 was carried out by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. An optical microscopic study was employed for TENG thin-film surface analysis. When employed as a power source, the ZIF-67/PVDF TENG resulted in a high output voltage of 119.6 V and 7.7 μA and a power density of 171 mW/m² at a load resistance of 60 MΩ. The selected Vertical contact separation (VCS) mode enables the pressure-sensing ability of the TENG. The duality of this TENG was checked for pressure sensing at low pressure, resulting in a sensitivity of 3.392 V/kPa, a response time of 10 ms, and durability of up to 10 000 cycles for pressures up to 3.1 kPa. This TENG can find its application in its ease of integration as a power source for the microbased circuit device application and also can be used dually as a pressure-sensing device in state-of-the-art miniature technology.