A Universal Strategy for Improving the Energy Transmission Efficiency and Load Power of Triboelectric Nanogenerators

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have recently been invented as a potential energy technology for harvesting low-frequency mechanical energy. The load power acquired from a TENG is far less than the maximum output power of the TENG for the large internal impedance and impedance mismatch, and this difference results in an extremely low energy transmission efficiency. Here, a universal strategy is proposed for improving the energy transmission efficiency and load power through dielectric material design, including a reduction in the effective thickness and the directional alignment of the electric dipole. This strategy reduces the internal impedances of TENGs with different modes and results in the improvement of energy transmission efficiency and load power. According to this strategy, the internal impedance of an as-fabricated TENG is reduced from 16 to 1.3 M omega, and the energy transmission efficiency is enhanced from 22.46% to 99.5%. Moreover, the load power under 1 M omega resistance is improved from 0.014 to 0.251 mu W, an increase of 18 times. The strategy not only opens a universal and new road to power management, but also paves the way for the industrial applications of TENGs.