Advances in Bioinspired Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have quickly become one of the most popular mechanisms for harvesting ambient mechanical energy due to their simple design, facile construction, abundance of material choices, and cost-effectiveness. Over the past decade, TENG research has been heavily focused on methods of construction that improve output or function in specific applications. Recently many researchers have looked to the design of the world around them to create more advanced TENGs, investigating the unique qualities that organisms use to survive and thrive in their environments. These bioinspired TENGs are often more efficient, more environmentally friendly, or possess more capabilities than their standard TENG counterparts. Herein, this paper provides a review of recent advances in TENGs that utilize inspiration or novel materials from nature for use in biomonitoring, artificial intelligence texture detection, wind energy harvesting, blue energy harvesting and other applications. The unique qualities of these TENGs include sweat-resistance, biodegradability, increased output parameters, and more. This review is organized into plant-inspired, animal-inspired, human-inspired, and other bioinspired TENGs. Each study's source of inspiration, the problems they sought to address, and the output parameters of the device are discussed, followed by a discussion of current challenges and promising future directions for field advancement.