An Active Temperature Sensor based on Encapsulated Flexible and Transparent Triboelectric Nanogenerator

In this paper, we fabricate a long-term stable flexible and transparent triboelectric nanogenerator(TENG) based on encapsulating hydrogel with polydimethylsiloxane(PDMS). This device not only can be employed for energy harvesting, but is able to detect the temperature as the resistance of the hydrogel encapsulated is changed with the temperature linearly. Therefore, from the principle, temperature sensing and energy harvesting are two independent functions in this design. Verified from the testing results, TENG reached an open-circuit voltage of 60V, a short-circuit current density of 14mA m
^-2
, and a maximum power density at 0.225W m
^-2
, and its temperature sensing range is 20-80°C with sensitivity at 1.174%/°C respectively.