High efficiency triboelectric charge capture for high output direct current electricity

Direct current triboelectric nanogenerators (DC-TENGs), based on triboelectrification and corona discharge, exhibit advantages of high output energy and low crest factor. However, the air breakdown that occurs at the interface of tribo-layers due to charge accumulation from triboelectrification results in energy loss. Efficiently capturing triboelectric charges is a great challenge for the improvement of the output energy of DC-TENGs. Herein, we propose a new strategy to efficiently capture triboelectric charges within the interface by rationally arranging charge-collecting electrodes (CCEs), achieving a remarkable 396% enhancement in output charge compared with the conventional electrostatic induction method. The rolling mode constant current TENG, using the reasonable arrangement of CCEs, produces an ultrahigh constant current of 0.51 mA with an ultra-low crest factor of 1.02. This constant current TENG achieves an output charge density of 10.06 mC m-2, surpassing all other types of TENGs reported. Additionally, it obtains an average power density of 9.8 W m-2, a remarkable 49-fold compared with the conventional DC-TENG. This work offers insight into the working mechanism of charge collection through corona discharge and proposes an effective charge-collecting strategy in the triboelectrification process. A novel strategy is proposed for capturing energy lost within the tribo-layer by rationally arranging charge-collecting electrodes, achieving the highest output charge density (10.06 mC m-2) among various types of TENGs.