Enhancing output performance of triboelectric nanogenerator by suppressing surface flashover of the dielectric layer

The rapid development of Internet of Things technology poses a huge challenge to energy supply. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) have been in development for several years and have begun to gradually demonstrate its application ability. Currently, a large amount of work is still focused on enhancing its output power, and less research is done on the dissipation of friction surface charge. In this paper, the dynamic equilibrium of the TENG surface charge is discussed and the surface flashover phenomena of dielectric layers, which have not been considered, are investigated. The experimental results demonstrate that the surface charge density of the sliding TENG can be enhanced by 20.9% by adding an insulating layer. The study in this paper provides an important reference value for the preparation and commercial application of TENG.