Positive and Negative Triboelectricity Checkered Board Design for Friction Force and Heat Suppression in Triboelectrification Process

Interfacial electrostatic attraction during the triboelectrification process inevitably increases frictional resistance and heat loss. However, rational strategies to mitigate these strong electrostatic forces at the triboelectric interface remain lacking. Herein, a positive and negative triboelectricity checkered board design is proposed to suppress both friction and heat generation in sliding triboelectric nanogenrator (TENG). The continuous balance of interfacial charge attraction and repulsion forces is maintained during the sliding process. By systematically investigating the friction and adhesion force, frictional heating, and electrical outputs of various types of sliding-mode TENGs, this checkered board design TENG (CB-TENG) reduces the sliding friction force and static friction force by more than 30% and 80% compared with the lock-free TENG, and exhibits a maximum temperature reduction of 69.5% as that of the freestanding TENG (FS-TENG). Besides, the CB-TENG achieves 220% enhancement in transferred charge and fourfold enhancement in output energy of FS-TENG over the same sliding distance. Moreover, the segmented electrode design and phase difference in dual-channel AC outputs also enable it function as a direction and displacement sensor for intelligent driving systems. The proposed novel strategy to solve friction resistance and heat loss must lead TENG with high output and durability to more mature applications.