Ultra-Robust and High-Performance Rotational Triboelectric Nanogenerator by Bearing Charge Pumping

As an emerging technology to convert environmental high-entropy energy into electrical energy, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has great demands for further enhancing the service lifetime and output performance in practical applications. Here, an ultra-robust and high-performance rotational triboelectric nanogenerator (R-TENG) by bearing charge pumping is proposed. The R-TENG composes of a pumping TENG (P-TENG), an output TENG (O-TENG), a voltage-multiplying circuit (VMC), and a buffer capacitor. The P-TENG is designed with freestanding mode based on a rolling ball bearing, which can also act as the rotating mechanical energy harvester. The output low charge from the P-TENG is accumulated and pumped to the non-contact O-TENG, which can simultaneously realize ultralow mechanical wear and high output performance. The matched instantaneous power of R-TENG is increased by 32 times under 300 r/min. Furthermore, the transferring charge of R-TENG can remain 95% during 15 days (6.4 x 10(6) cycles) continuous operation. This work presents a realizable method to further enhance the durability of TENG, which would facilitate the practical applications of high-performance TENG in harvesting distributed ambient micro mechanical energy.