Electric displacement modulation under internal field for high-performance mechanical-to-electrical energy generator

Extensive efforts have been made to improve the output performance of triboelectricity-based mechanical-to-electrical energy generators (TBMEGs). However, the existing improvement strategies roughly treat various dielectrics as ideal capacitor models in charge storage and release, restricting the output enhancement of TBMEGs owing to neglect of the electric displacement response characteristics of dielectrics. Herein, an electric displacement-internal field modulation strategy is proposed for dielectrics that are actually non-ideal capacitors, which fully exploits their gain-of-function effects by synergistically boosting their surface electrostatic polarization change and discharge energy. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, an elaborate dielectric consisting of polydimethylsiloxane-filled submicron interconnected lead zirconate titanate skeletons shows good modulation results. The corresponding TBMEG delivers high outputs of 203.3 μC m−2 and 27.6 mJ m−2, realizing a 330% improvement compared to the classical ideal capacitor model strategy. These findings provide more practical insights into output enhancement strategies for TBMEGs composed of non-ideal capacitive dielectrics.