Rationally patterned electrode of direct-current triboelectric nanogenerators for ultrahigh effective surface charge density

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 6186 - 9
• Main Authors: Zhao, Zhihao, Dai, Yejing, Liu, Di, Zhou, Linglin, Li, Shaoxin, Wang, Zhong Lin, Wang, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 03.12.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 147/135; 639/4077/4072/4062; 639/925; Artificial intelligence; Charge density; Electrification; Electrodes; Energy; Energy harvesting; Humanities and Social Sciences; Internet of Things; Microstructure; Miniaturization; multidisciplinary; Nanogenerators; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Surface charge
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20045-y

As a new-era of energy harvesting technology, the enhancement of triboelectric charge density of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is always crucial for its large-scale application on Internet of Things (IoTs) and artificial intelligence (AI). Here, a microstructure-designed direct-current TENG (MDC-TENG) with rationally patterned electrode structure is presented to enhance its effective surface charge density by increasing the efficiency of contact electrification. Thus, the MDC-TENG achieves a record high charge density of ~5.4 mC m −2 , which is over 2-fold the state-of-art of AC-TENGs and over 10-fold compared to previous DC-TENGs. The MDC-TENG realizes both the miniaturized device and high output performance. Meanwhile, its effective charge density can be further improved as the device size increases. Our work not only provides a miniaturization strategy of TENG for the application in IoTs and AI as energy supply or self-powered sensor, but also presents a paradigm shift for large-scale energy harvesting by TENGs. Low charge density is the bottleneck for the applications of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). Here, the authors demonstrate a microstructure-designed direct-current TENG with rationally patterned electrode structure to enhance its effective charge density to a new milestone.