A Universal Strategy for Improving the Energy Transmission Efficiency and Load Power of Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have recently been invented as a potential energy technology for harvesting low‐frequency mechanical energy. The load power acquired from a TENG is far less than the maximum output power of the TENG for the large internal impedance and impedance mismatch, and this difference results in an extremely low energy transmission efficiency. Here, a universal strategy is proposed for improving the energy transmission efficiency and load power through dielectric material design, including a reduction in the effective thickness and the directional alignment of the electric dipole. This strategy reduces the internal impedances of TENGs with different modes and results in the improvement of energy transmission efficiency and load power. According to this strategy, the internal impedance of an as‐fabricated TENG is reduced from 16 to 1.3 MΩ, and the energy transmission efficiency is enhanced from 22.46% to 99.5%. Moreover, the load power under 1 MΩ resistance is improved from 0.014 to 0.251 µW, an increase of 18 times. The strategy not only opens a universal and new road to power management, but also paves the way for the industrial applications of TENGs.

An ultra high performance, lead-free Bi2WO6:P(VDF-TrFE)-based triboelectric nanogenerator for self-powered sensors and smart electronic applications

“…S6 (ESI †). Initially, the potential drop (base voltage) across the pH sensor device was measured to be 10 V. The obtained voltage can be attributed to the high resistance of the Bi 2 WO 6 pH sensor connected in parallel to the nanogenerator, following which the pH sensor was sensitised with different pH values (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11) and the corresponding output responses were measured after stabilizing the pH sensor with acid or alkali solution as displayed in Fig. 6(d and e).…”

“…Efforts were made to synthesize the nano-dipole aligned b-phase PVDF using post stretching and annealing or incorporating fillers and poled with external electrical fields. 10 The percentage of b-phase formed can be further enhanced by introducing different fillers like ZnO, Hg, graphene, Fe 3 O 4 , ZnSnO 3 , MoS 2 , etc. during the synthesis process.…”

Recent Advances of Device Components toward Efficient Flexible Perovskite Solar Cells

“…Figure c shows the dynamics of photoinduced charge carriers in the flexible perovskite layer. It is worth noting that within the common heterostructure of PSC devices, interfaces play an important role in determination of device performance, as losses of charge carriers usually occur at interfaces between different materials, leading to a reduction in both current and voltage, thus the final PCE . Matching and fabricating device structural components of appropriate optoelectronic and photonic properties are crucial for the following assembly of devices; and this is a research focus in both conventional perovskite‐based applications and flexible perovskite devices.…”

A standard for normalizing the outputs of triboelectric nanogenerators in various modes

“…3,4 However, the output performance of TENGs is limited by various factors such as the contact area, film thickness, displacement distance, applied force and triggering frequency. In addition, the working mode of TENGs is also an important factor affecting the output performance, 5,6 which is divided into four types: the contact-separation (C-S), singleelectrode (S-E), lateral-sliding (L-S) and free-standing (F-S) modes, respectively. [7][8][9][10] Therefore, studying various factors is a key issue in improving the output performance of TENGs 11,12 and expanding their applications.…”