Maximized Effective Energy Output of Contact‐Separation‐Triggered Triboelectric Nanogenerators as Limited by Air Breakdown

Abstract

Recent progress in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) has demonstrated their promising potential as a high‐efficiency mechanical energy harvesting technology, and plenty of effort has been devoted to improving the power output by maximizing the triboelectric surface charge density. However, due to high‐voltage air breakdown, most of the enhanced surface charge density brought by material/surface optimization or external ion injection is not retainable or usable for electricity generation during the operation of contact‐separation‐triggered TENGs. Here, the existence of the air breakdown effect in a contact‐separation mode TENG with a low threshold surface charge density of ≈40–50 µC m−2 is first validated under the high impedance external load, and then followed by the theoretical study of the maximized effective energy output as limited by air breakdown for contact‐separation‐triggered TENGs. The effects of air pressure and gas composition are also studied and propose promising solutions for reducing the air breakdown effect. This research provides a crucial fundamental study for TENG technology and its further development and applications.