Advanced Functional Materials · 2015 · 537 citations · 30 references
Natural SciencesMaterials EngineeringMaterials ScienceElectronic MaterialsEnergy MaterialsSurface ScienceDielectric MaterialsDielectricsElectrochemical Energy ConversionElectrode MaterialsNanoenergy MaterialsNanostructured Energy MaterialsElectrode InterfacesEnergy Conversion EfficiencyEnergy HarvestingNanogeneratorsNanostructured ElectrodesPower DensityPower GenerationTriboelectric Nanogenerators
Harvesting ambient mechanical energy is essential for self‑powered electronics, yet conventional triboelectric nanogenerators use solid electrodes whose surface roughness limits full contact and reduces charge density and efficiency. This study develops a liquid‑metal‑based triboelectric nanogenerator to generate high power from mechanical energy. The LM‑TENG achieves complete contact between liquid metal and dielectric, creating a large, shape‑adaptive interface that enhances charge transfer. The device delivers a charge density of 430 µC m⁻²—four to five times that of solid electrodes—along with power densities of 6.7 W m⁻² and 133 kW m⁻³, achieving an instantaneous energy conversion efficiency of 70.6 % and proving suitability for vibration energy harvesting.
Harvesting ambient mechanical energy is a key technology for realizing self‐powered electronics, which has tremendous applications in wireless sensing networks, implantable devices, portable electronics, etc. The currently reported triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) mainly uses solid materials, so that the contact between the two layers cannot be 100% with considering the roughness of the surfaces, which greatly reduces the total charge density that can be transferred and thus the total energy conversion efficiency. In this work, a liquid‐metal‐based triboelectric nanogenerator (LM‐TENG) is developed for high power generation through conversion of mechanical energy, which allows a total contact between the metal and the dielectric. Due to that the liquid–solid contact induces large contacting surface and its shape adaptive with the polymer thin films, the LM‐TENG exhibits a high output charge density of 430 μC m −2 , which is four to five times of that using a solid thin film electrode. And its power density reaches 6.7 W m −2 and 133 kW m −3 . More importantly, the instantaneous energy conversion efficiency is demonstrated to be as high as 70.6%. This provides a new approach for improving the performance of the TENG for special applications. Furthermore, the liquid easily fluctuates, which makes the LM‐TENG inherently suitable for vibration energy harvesting.
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Flexible triboelectric generator
Feng Ru Fan, Zhong‐Qun Tian, Zhong Lin Wang · Nano Energy · 2012 · 6.5K citations
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