Fully Integrated Direct Current Triboelectric Nanogenerators Coupled with Charge Pump and Electric Field Enhancing Effect Enabling Improved Output Performance

Abstract

Direct-current triboelectric nanogenerators (DC-TENGs) arising from electrostatic breakdown have garnered significant attention due to their advantages of rectification-free operation, constant current output, and high output power density. Previous studies have primarily concentrated on improving its performance through structural design and parameter optimization, neglecting the potential benefits of external charge excitation. Here, a facile and universal strategy coupling charge pump and electric field enhancing effect with DC-TENG (CE-DC-TENG) is proposed to improve the output performance of DC-TENG. An alternating current TENG is used as the charge pump. A field-enhancing conductive layer, which is introduced under the main DC-TENG, is connected with the pump TENG to accumulate the charge and enhance the electric field for electrostatic breakdown. The effectiveness of this method is demonstrated by linear and rotary sliding mode TENGs. Furthermore, a fully integrated rotary sliding mode CE-DC-TENG is designed and fabricated, and it exhibits impressive performance with a 13-fold higher power density of 1.56 W m⁻² compared to conventional DC-TENG. Moreover, it can directly power small electronics or be combined with a designed power management circuit for more efficient energy conversion. This work presents a new design strategy for improving the performance of DC-TENG and facilitating its practical applications.