Achieving High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator by DC Pump Strategy

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been demonstrated as a promising solution for powering widely distributed electronics in the new era of Internet of Things (IoTs), however, high-performance TENG always relies on tribo-materials with high triboelectric property. Here, a simple self-charge excitation technique that charge injection is directly realized by self-generated electrostatic breakdown charge instead of voltage-multiplying circuit is proposed to break through the limitation of triboelectrification. By using the designed electrostatic breakdown charge excitation TENG (EBE-TENG), the output performance of poor tribo-material based TENG such as polyethylene (PE) can be enhanced by 5.7 times, which even approximates that of high tribo-material based TENG such as fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP). Moreover, electrostatic breakdown charge excitation technique also exhibits a universal applicable ability for other different triboelectric materials. This work not only greatly simplifies the charge excitation system, but also broadens the availability of materials for achieving high-performance TENG.