A flexible and wearable generator with fluorocarbon plasma induced wrinkle structure

This work presents a flexible and wearable energy harvester for harvesting muscle motion energy. A novel single-step fluorocarbon plasma induced wrinkle structure is employed as the friction layer to increase its performance by enlarging the contact area and introducing material modification at the same time. Under bending or pressing, this device could produce an alternating current. Additionally, by adjusting the spin-coating speed, this wrinkle morphology and the thickness of PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) film could be controlled. Therefore, through the optimizing of this parameter, 225 V peak voltage and 375 μA maximum current is achieved under finger typing. Moreover, this device is successfully mounted on an adult's arm to scavenge the mechanical energy during his motion. Due to its well flexibility, simple manufacturing process, and high output performance, the generator has much potential for powering up wearable electronics or e-skin.