Dual output from unitary input for a hybrid coaxial triboelectric nanogenerator inspired by a crank engine

Abstract

Energy conversion cannot be sufficiently achieved from a single output device having a single input. Energy conversion efficiency and output power of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) can be enhanced by increasing the contact area or the number of devices. Especially, combining two or more of the four operational mode (contact-separation, lateral sliding, single electrode, freestanding) of triboelectric nanogenerator would be more efficient to harvest mechanical energy than with singleharvesting mode. In this paper, a hybrid coaxial triboelectric nanogenerator (HC-TENG) can generate electrical output from dual outputs. This HC-TENG consists of a disk-TENG and LS-TENG so that a large current can be harvested from the rotating movement of disk-TENG at a high frequency input and an additional output can be generated from the LS-TENG by adding one axis. The structure of device with one axis was inspired by the structure of crank engine, which can convert linear motion into rotational motion. When applying the structure of HC-TENG to an application, the input-output efficiency was calculated by using the rotational kinetic energy formula with the value of 16.66%. Moreover, the efficiency of HC-TENG was verified by comparing experimental values with theoretical calculations for the presence of the dual outputs. This combination of multiple TENGs can be adopted for enhancing efficiency from every ambient rotational movement in real life.