title: Standards and figure-of-merits for quantifying the performance of triboelectric nanogenerators.
abstract: Triboelectric nanogenerators have been invented as a highly efficient, cost-effective and easy scalable energy-harvesting technology for converting ambient mechanical energy into electricity. Four basic working modes have been demonstrated, each of which has different designs to accommodate the corresponding mechanical triggering conditions. A common standard is thus required to quantify the performance of the triboelectric nanogenerators so that their outputs can be compared and evaluated. Here we report figure-of-merits for defining the performance of a triboelectric nanogenerator, which is composed of a structural figure-of-merit related to the structure and a material figure of merit that is the square of the surface charge density. The structural figure-of-merit is derived and simulated to compare the triboelectric nanogenerators with different configurations. A standard method is introduced to quantify the material figure-of-merit for a general surface. This study is likely to establish the standards for developing TENGs towards practical applications and industrialization.
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Yunlong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zi
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Simiao
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1973-2204
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Niu
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.
authors.forename: Zhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, USA.|Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100083, China.
authors.forename: Zhong Lin
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Wang