Multifunctional Mechanical Metamaterials with Embedded Triboelectric Nanogenerators

The flexibility of planar triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) enables them to be embedded into structures with complex geometries and to conform with any deformation of these structures. In return, the embedded TENGs function as either strain-sensitive active sensors or energy harvesters while negligibly affecting the structure's original mechanical properties. This advantage inspires a new class of multifunctional materials where compliant TENGs are distributed into local operational units of mechanical metamaterial, dubbed TENG-embedded mechanical metamaterials. This new class of metamaterial inherits the advantages of a traditional mechanical metamaterial, in that the deformation of the internal topology of material enables unusual mechanical properties. The concept is illustrated with experimental investigations and finite element simulations of prototypes based on two exemplar metamaterial geometries where functions of self-powered sensing, energy harvesting, as well as the designated mechanical behavior are investigated. This work provides a new framework in producing multifunctional triboelectric devices.