GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Under the provisions of the regulations for the degree

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

on Thursday, April 4, 2019

4:30 PM
in MoSE 3201A

will be held the

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL DEFENSE

for

Aurelia Chi Wang

"Mechanism of Contact Electrification and Improved Performance of Triboelectric Nanogenerators"

Committee Members:

Prof. Zhiqun Lin, Advisor, MSE

Prof. Yulin Deng, ChBE

Prof. Meilin Liu, MSE

Prof. Preet Singh, MSE

Prof. Vladimir Tsukruk, MSE

Abstract:

Contact electrification (CE), or triboelectrification, is a phenomenon that has been recorded since ancient Greek times, but the mechanism behind it has remained a topic of debate for almost a century. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can harness the ambient mechanical energy ubiquitous to our everyday life and convert it into electricity through the combined effects of CE and electrostatic induction. Until now, studies on the mechanism and charge identity of CE have lacked the means to study time-dependent or temperature-dependent variation in surface electrostatic charges. The developed models from our research are intended to explain CE for metal-insulator pairs using surface charge data from Ti-SiO2 TENGs at high temperatures. This research proposal seeks to analyze surface charge trends based on results from a variety of TENG operational modes, such as sliding at high temperatures, and use this information to improve our CE models. The second half of this proposal deals with chemical modification of TENGs, which has advanced within the past few years in order to increase transferred charge density and thus enhance TENG performance. To achieve this goal, more universal and versatile chemical modification processes where surfaces of either polarity may be improved are required. Through a systematic selection of polymer brush monomers and conditions, the proposed research can offer insight on this novel TENG surface modification method as a facile and scalable enhancement process.