Research Projects

Project Summary Rationale: The rise of IoT and AI demands sustainable, maintenance-free energy sources to power billions of distributed sensors. Batteries, the dominant solution, suffer from limited capacity and require frequent replacement, undermining system autonomy and sustainability. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) offer a promising alternative by converting ambient mechanical energy into electricity but face challenges of low power output and reliance on consistent mechanical excitation. Integrating light energy—an abundant renewable resource—into TENGs through a hybrid, light-mediated approach could significantly improve energy harvesting efficiency and operational reliability. Scientific Objectives: 1. Develop a one-layer multifunctional hybrid nanogenerator (light-mediated TENG) that can simultaneously convert mechanical and light energies into electrical energy. 2. Understand and optimize the coupling of triboelectric and photovoltaic effects in perovskite-based materials to maximize charge generation and collection efficiency. 3. Demonstrate application-specific prototypes in biomedical devices, smart agriculture, defense, and IoT sensing systems. Hypothesis/Model to be Tested: A multifunctional perovskite material can simultaneously serve as a triboelectric and photoactive layer, where incident light enhances carrier excitation and transport, thereby boosting triboelectric charge density and overall output power. The hypothesis posits that light-mediated excitation can synergistically improve TENG performance beyond what mechanical energy alone can achieve. Main Experiments: 1. Synthesis & characterization of halide perovskite thin films optimized for dual triboelectric and photovoltaic functionality. 2. Device fabrication of single-layer light-mediated TENGs integrating perovskite films. 3. Performance evaluation under varying mechanical stimuli and light intensities to assess improvements in voltage, current, and power density. 4. Kelvin probe microscopy or time-resolved spectroscopy to investigate carrier dynamics, charge separation, and recombination under simultaneous mechanical and light excitation. 5. Application demonstration in self-powered sensors for respiratory monitoring, wearable health devices, smart agriculture systems, and defense communication modules. Estimated Significance: Successful realization of this project will establish a new class of hybrid energy harvesters with high power output suitable for powering next-generation self-powered IoT devices. It will advance fundamental understanding of light-assisted triboelectric mechanisms, inform the strategic design of multifunctional materials, and accelerate industrial-scale development of TENG-based systems. This technology could eliminate reliance on batteries in critical fields like healthcare, defense, and space exploration, contributing directly to sustainable and autonomous electronic platforms.