Lightweight Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Energy Harvesting and Sensing Tiny Mechanical Motion

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have shown exciting applications in mechanical energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. Aiming at commercial applications, cost reduction and simplification of TENG structures are of great interest. In this work, a lightweight TENG based on the integration of polymer nanowires and a carbon sponge, which serves both as the substrate and an electrode, are reported. Because of the low density of the carbon sponge and the filmy nanowires, the device exhibits a total mass of less than 0.1 g for a volume of 12.5 cm(3) and it produces a short-circuit current of 6 A, open-circuit voltage of 75 V, and a maximum output power of 0.28 W kg(-1) under light finger tapping. The device can linearly measure the acceleration at a detection limit down to 0.25 m s(-2) and for a detection range from 0.25 m s(-2) to 10.0 m s(-2).