High-current density and wear-resistant flexible rolling tribovoltaic generator and its scalable array strategy

The tribovoltaic nanogenerator (TVNG) has attracted significant interest for the direct current output and high current density. However, the TVNG still faces challenges including: A significant decrease in current density occurs with increasing contact area, attributable to the numerous non-contact regions at the interface; Semiconductor electrical properties cause energy loss in the arraying process. We developed a flexible rolling triboelectric nanogenerator (FR-TVNG), wherein the flexible substrate with a low Young's modulus facilitates an increase in the contact area, thereby enhancing interfacial electric field generation and the excitation of electron-hole pairs. A current density of 1.3 × 10⁻¹ A/m² (0.8 cm²) was achieved. Furthermore, we implemented an array integration strategy utilizing bypass diodes and blocking diodes, effectively mitigating energy loss in array.