Standardized Volume Power Density Boost in Frequency-Up Converted Contact-Separation Mode Triboelectric Nanogenerators

The influence of a mechanical structure’s volume increment on the volume power density (VPD) of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is often neglected when considering surface charge density and surface power density. This paper aims to address this gap by introducing a standardized VPD metric for a more comprehensive evaluation of TENG performance. The study specifically focuses on 2 frequency-up mechanisms, namely, the integration of planetary gears (PG-TENG) and the implementation of a double-cantilever structure (DC-TENG), to investigate their impact on VPD. The study reveals that the PG-TENG achieves the highest volume average power density, measuring at 0.92 W/m3. This value surpasses the DC-TENG by 1.26 times and the counterpart TENG by a magnitude of 69.9 times. Additionally, the PG-TENG demonstrates superior average power output. These findings introduce a new approach for enhancing TENGs by incorporating frequency-up mechanisms, and highlight the importance of VPD as a key performance metric for evaluating TENGs.