Active Deformable and Flexible Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on Super-Light Clay

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are demonstrated to possess great superiority in the field of low-frequency and high-entropy energy harvesting. Here, a kind of friction material, super-light clay (SLC), with outstanding stretchability and shape/size changeability is introduced to develop contact-separation triboelectric nanogenerators (SLC-TENGs), which exhibit outstanding flexible, shape-changeable, and adaptable properties but simple preparation processes. A high and stable electrical output can be achieved from the simple-structured SLC-TENG. The peak power density of the SLC-TENG output reaches up to 0.33 W/m2 under an effective contact with an area of 9 cm2 and an external load resistance of 50 MΩ. In addition, a balloon-structured TENG was also prepared with the filling of several SLC balls. The electrical signals can be generated even just by a slight shaking, revealing great application potential in the Internet of Things systems and self-powered sensors by energy harvesting from wind, ocean, human body movements, etc.