Asymmetrical Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Controllable Direct Electrostatic Discharge

Abstract

This paper presents a novel asymmetrical triboelectric nanogenerator (A-TENG) to produce, detect, and analyze contact electrifi cation and electrostatic discharge (ESD) in the atmosphere. Thanks to the asymmetrical structures, the direct and continuous ESD phenomenon without any external electronic circuits is, for the fi rst time, discovered by our experiments in A-TENG. Different from traditional contact-mode TENG, asymmetrical contact pairs introduce an unstable state, which causes a continuous surface charge increase and eventually the air breakdown. The ESD phenomena have been simultaneously detected and confi rmed by a low-dark-current photoelectric detector. Four different steps have been summarized to describe irregular ESD transition processes before their stable state. At the same time, the frequency and effi ciency of ESD have been generally regulated and controlled by systematically investigating several key infl uence factors (contact materials, contact pressure, tilted angle, surface morphology, etc.). This asymmetrical structure has proved TENG as powerful and real-time analytical equipment to explore fundamentals of contact electrifi cation and ESD. Meanwhile, three necessary premises for ESD in TENG can be selectively avoided for the improvement of the stability of TENG.

A flat-panel-shaped hybrid piezo/triboelectric nanogenerator for ambient energy harvesting

“…The results demonstrate that, as the average surface roughness was calculated using (average peak height-average distance between peaks)/2 [21], the output voltage increases as the the roughness decreases (average surface roughness: UV treated surface=50 μm, paper mold=295 μm, cloth=350 μm, 3D surface=410 μm, and aluminum foil=390 μm). The size and shape of the pattern on the PDMS surface also matters [15]. That is, we obtained the highest output when we used a UV-treated PDMS surface.…”

Triboelectric Nanogenerator with Dynamic Electrode for Geological Disaster and Fall‐Down Self‐Powered Alarm System

“…The threshold voltage for air breakdown between two parallel plates is described by Paschen's law. [25][26][27]…”

“…The threshold voltage for air breakdown between two parallel plates is described by Paschen's law. [ 25–27 ] $$$$\begin{equation}{V}_b = \frac{{Apd}}{{ln\left( {pd} \right) + B}}\end{equation}$$$$where V b is the threshold breakdown voltage, p is the pressure, d is the gap distance between the boards, and A and B are constants related to the gas composition and pressure.…”

Achieving High Power Density and Long‐Term Stable Flexible Triboelectric Nanogenerators through Surface Functionalization of High Work‐Function Electrode with Cationic Thiol‐Based Self‐Assembled Monolayer

“…The resulting TENG generated V oc of 208 V, I sc of 24.1 µA, and transferred charges (Q sc ) of 12.6 nC (Table 1 and Figure 2), which correspond reasonably closely to previously reported values based on similar device configuration. [23,32,33] Although the use of Al layer as the electrode delivered high performance, such device exhibited poor stability, losing 38% of its initial voltage output after 932 h of storage under ambient air conditions (25 ± 2 °C, 60 ± 5% relative humidity (RH)), as shown in Figure 3. Faster degradation was observed when subjected to high humidity conditions (25 ± 2 °C, 80 ± 5% RH) or short-term (≈5 min) water immersion, as shown in Figure 3 and Figure S3 in the Supporting Information.…”