A compliant mechanism actuated bistable hybrid mode triboelectric nanogenerator

Abstract Traditional contact-separation mode triboelectric nanogenerators (CS-TENGs) and lateral sliding mode TENGs exhibit distinct strengths and weaknesses in terms of their charge generation capability and durability. In this study, by leveraging a bistable compliant mechanism (BHM-TENG), we propose a hybrid mode TENG, which synthesizes the features of two traditional working modes to achieve both high durability and satisfactory performance. The proposed design exhibited a 78.6% surge in voltage output and a 142% surge in power density compared to CS-TENG. The design also maintains over 95% power generation capability after 100 000 cycles. Moreover, the compliant bistable mechanism offers a reliable actuation method at low frequencies, validated through experiments supported with a mathematical model. Real-world energy harvesting applications enabled by BHM-TENG are also discussed.