Achieving high performance triboelectric nanogenerators simultaneously with high-voltage and high-charge energy cycle†

Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), serving as an innovative energy harvesting technology, have garnered significant attention and demonstrated promising potential applications across internet of things and artificial intelligence. However, developing an efficient and rational power management circuit (PMC) remains a significant challenge, primarily attributed to the limited energy transmission efficiency. Here, we propose a universal and effective strategy that can achieve lossless energy transmission between TENGs and PMCs by using the inherent capacitor of the TENG as the excitation source for the PMC. Additionally, we attain high-charge output (1.24 mC m⁻²) and high-voltage output (7200 V) simultaneously by harnessing the space charge accumulation effect and increasing the thickness of the triboelectric layer. More importantly, a high energy output of 4.24 J m⁻² cycle⁻¹ is achieved in the HV–HQ energy cycle by eliminating spark discharge at the synchronous switch. This groundbreaking work perfectly addresses the unavoidable low energy transmission efficiency issue, and provides a new methodology for achieving high-performance TENGs to power electrical devices.