Energy Harvesting From Water Droplet Motion Confined On A Hydrophobic-Hydrophilic Stripped Surface

This paper reports a water droplet-based electrostatic energy harvester which is based on rolling of droplet on a well-defined hydrophilic channel (SiO
2
) having precharged hydrophobic film of CYTOP as side walls. CYTOP is a hydrophobic material which has high charge trapping potential because of high breakdown voltage in the range 132 V/μm, The developed device works on the variable capacitor model, and converts mechanical motion of droplet into electrical energy. Design and developed of the reported device is simple and relatively faster than conventional energy harvesters and MEMS devices. Peak voltage of 1.5 V and 3.1 V were observed for pure and ionic water (5 wt% NaCl) for 50 μL, of droplet respectively when it rolls over the hydrophilic channel.