A Resonance-Based Study of the Output Characteristics of Spring-Assisted Triboelectric Nanogenerator

The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a new type of energy conversion technology capable of transforming various forms of environmental energy into electricity. However, most of the existing spring-assisted TENGs (S-TENGs) are based on the vertical contact-separation mode, which has low energy-harvesting efficiency and insufficient research on the performance output of TENG under near-resonant frequency conditions. In this article, a low-cost S-TENG with independent layer mode is designed for vibration energy harvesting. The effects of different vibration parameters and structural parameters on the output performance are comprehensively investigated. In the experimental results, it is shown that the output voltage of the S-TENG reaches its peak at a frequency of 50 Hz, achieving ≈40 V. To validate the capability of S-TENG in powering low-power devices, 20 LED lights are successfully lit. It is found that the maximum output power across the external resistor of 8 MΩ is 0.4 mw. It is also investigated that the output characteristics of S-TENG under resonance and the results showed that higher output electric power can be achieved when the vibration frequency is close to the intrinsic frequency of the S-TENG. In this finding, the potential of S-TENG in optimized energy-harvesting applications, particularly in resonance-enhanced scenarios.