High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator and Tribophotonics

As the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), trillions of widely-distributed devices are integrated for health monitoring, biomedical sensing, environmental protection, infrastructure monitoring, and security, which require power supplies. To provide a sustainable power solution, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been developed since 2012 for high-efficiency mechanical energy harvesting from the ambient environment. The PI’s team has made significant contributions to fundamental studies about the triboelectric effect, discharge, and TENG output characteristics. and Multiple strategies to greatly enhance the output performance of TENG has been demonstrated, such as the high-pressure environment and the liquid-solid interface. On the other hand, the PI’s team also proposed and developed the concept of tribophotonics: tribo-charge induced tuning or generation of photons toward self-powered wireless sensing, which can be achieved through tunable liquid lens, liquid crystal, optical switch, tribo-induced electroluminescence (TIEL), and discharge. These studies will drive the further development of TENG technology for broad applications in blue energy harvesting, the IoT, human-machine interface, health & infrastructure monitoring, wearable & implantable electronics, towards high-efficiency self-powered systems.