Tribotronics—A new field by coupling triboelectricity and semiconductor

Abstract Contact electrification between two different materials results in a potential difference when they are separated, which has been used as a driving force for energy conversion as a result of invention of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). Here, by coupling the triboelectricity with semiconductor, a new field of tribotronics has been proposed in 2014, which is about the devices fabricated using the electrostatic potential created by triboelectrification as a “gate” voltage to tune/control electrical transport and transformation in semiconductors. Various tribotronic functional devices have been developed, such as tribotronic logic circuits, memory, LED and phototransistor, with a variety of materials, including silicon, flexible organic, MoS2, etc. As an extension of the proposed piezoelectric nanogenerator in 2006, piezotronics in 2007 and triboelectric nanogenerator in 2012, tribotronics is another original and novel field in the development of nano-energy and nano-electronics. The concepts and results presented in this review show promises for implementing novel micro/nano-electromechanical devices that may derive plenty of potentially important research interests and applications in sensing, energy harvesting, human-machine interfacing, MEMS/NEMS and active flexible/stretchable electronics in the near future.