Sliding triboelectric nanogenerator with staggered electrodes

Highlights: • A sliding triboelectric nanogenerator with staggered electrodes is proposed. • The output enhancement is simulated and experimentally verified. • The staggered electrodes are favorable for achieving improved output performance. The sliding mode triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) is a sustainable power source that converts electrical energy from linear or rotary mechanical motion. This paper proposes an S-TENG with staggered electrodes (S-TENG-SE), which can considerably enhance the output performance of S-TENG by simply changing the spatial arrangement of the electrodes. A staggered arrangement of electrodes simultaneously increases both the open-circuit voltage and the transfer charge. The superiority of S-TENG-SE compared to S-TENGs with a conventional electrode arrangement is confirmed by a series of simulations and experiments. As a result, the maximum open-circuit voltage, transfer charge, and short-circuit current were all increased by 3.3, 2.7, and 4.5 times, respectively, compared to the conventional S-TENG. The S-TENG-SE has a favorable structure for improving the performance of S-TENG, and this work will provide valuable insight into the advancement of S-TENG technology.