A folded triboelectric sensor for performance evaluation of shock absorbers in automobile

Recently, pressure sensors for vibration monitoring are widely used in mechanical equipment safety monitoring. Here, we proposed a folded triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on polyether Imide/reduced graphene oxide (PEI/rGO) polymer (PR-TENG) with through-hole structure to harvest mechanical energy and monitor the vibration response of automotive shock absorbers. In this design, the polytetrafluoroethylene film andPEI/rGo (PR) polymer film form the triboelectric pairs. When the mechanical frequency reaches 15 Hz, the output performance of the seven-layer PR-TENG device reaches its maximum at 308 V, 55.2 µA, and 198 nC, respectively. When the external load is 5 MΩ, the output power of seven-layer PR-TENG reaches its maximum value of 3 mW. According to the experimental results, when the space size is 30 mm and the number of working layers is 7, the linearity of vibration amplitude monitoring is the best. In addition, by establishing a fitting curve between multilayer PR-TENG and amplitude, the matching relationship between the test amplitude of TENG and the actual amplitude can be observed. The results indicate that the test results are highly consistent with the actual results, indicating that the multilayer PR-TENG matches the vibration response of the shock absorber. This research will promote the development of automotive vibration sensors.