Enhancing energy harvesting for low-power electronics: A study on the impact of electrode number and freestanding layer in rotary triboelectric nanogenerator

Herein, the rotary triboelectric nanogenerator (R-TENG) with a modified structure is simulated and fabricated to investigate the effect of changes on the geometric structure experimentally. The R-TENGs were fabricated using cost-effective and easily accessible dry-film lithography based on the PCB approach. This process which is explained step-by-step in detail in this paper, provides uniform electrode layers without using high-tech instruments, resulting in enhanced fabrication speed and electrical performance. R-TENGs with varying electrode and PTFE sector counts (32/16, 16/8, and 8/4) were fabricated and analyzed. At 1000 rpm, the output power of R-TENGs with 8, 16, and 32 electrodes demonstrated escalating output power with increasing electrode numbers: 6.82, 19.52, and 30.64 Wm^-2, respectively. Simulation results corroborated the experimental findings, confirming that more electrodes and freestanding sectors yield superior power density and electrical generation. The 32-electrode, 16-sector R-TENG outperformed its counterparts, suggesting that strategic design alterations can significantly optimize energy harvesting in R-TENGs.