Advanced Bionics

Triboelectric Nanogenerators

A triboelectric nanogenerator is an energy harvesting device that converts external mechanical energy into electricity through a conjunction of triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction. This new type of nanogenerator was first demonstrated in Professor Zhong Lin Wang's group at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2012. As for this power generation unit, in the internal circuit, a potential is created by the triboelectric effect due to charge transfer between two organic/inorganic thin films which have opposite triobolary; in the external circuit, the electrons are caused to flow between two electrodes attached to the back of the films in order to balance the potential. Since the most useful materials for TENG are organic, it is also called organic nanogenerator, which is the first to use organic materials to harvest mechanical energy.