Nano Energy 117 (2023) 108861

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Nano Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/nanoen

Non-contact gravitational energy harvesting from solid spheres using a

two-stage triboelectric nanogenerator
Elias Kharbouche , Marc Ramuz , François Bernier , Cyril Calmes , Sylvain Blayac *
Mines Saint-Etienne, Center of Microelectronics in Provence, Department of Flexible Electronics, 13541 Gardanne, France

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Off-grid connected objects are widely used for environmental monitoring applications such as air and water
Triboelectric nanogenerators quality, soil salinity, weather forecasting and more. In recent studies, mechanical energy harvesting using
Free-standing balls energy harvesting triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have gained in efficiency, even though the design of these TENGs was kept
Norton equivalent model
simple. In this context, the durability of the mechanical contact between triboelectric materials is challenged.
Output current multiplication
Brushless energy conversion
This is why, free-standing balls have been proposed to reduce the friction in TENGs instead of foils, which are
commonly used. Thus, a non-contact gravitational TENG at state-of-the-art performances is proposed in this
work. This two-stage design is based on free-standing balls in a rotor and a contactless capacitive coupler. The
power generation has been investigated for these two stages according to analytical models. A new methodology
to extract the Norton model parameters from a moving TENG is suggested. Through an optimized interdigitated
design of the capacitive coupler, a 27-fold increase of the primary stage power is demonstrated and a state-of-the-
art peak output power density of 24.45 W m− 2 is reached. This study is a leading-edge example of how TENGs
could be adopted to power small remote apparatus, in addition of battery.

1. Introduction development of compacted batteries, the use of autonomous connected

objects has been widespread, leading to the operation of 51 billion de­
The development of Internet of Things (IoTs) has been progressing vices in 2023 [5]. However, batteries have a strong ecological impact
rapidly over the past decade and continues to evolve. The number and during their fabrication process and a limited period of operation, so
variety of IoT devices have expanded significantly and can range from they need to be recharged regularly. Considering these drawbacks, it
small sensors and wearables to industrial machinery and smart home seems preferable to develop alternative self-powered sensor nodes,
appliances. The increasing affordability and miniaturization of sensors, which can extract their own energy from airflows. Furthermore, sensors
along with improved battery life, have contributed to this proliferation. to monitor the air quality belong to the most energy-consuming devices
Indeed, IoTs and energy harvesting technologies go hand in hand, as IoT (hundreds of mW) [6]. As a result, the energy balance could only be
devices often rely on efficient and sustainable power sources due to their achieved by high-performance energy harvesters.
widespread deployment and diverse applications. Air quality moni­ Last years emphasized triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as a
toring is an interesting use case of the deployment of IoTs and associated promising technology for the conversion of mechanical energy into
energy resources. In 2015, air pollution was estimated to cause reliable electrical power sources [7]. TENGs are compact and low-cost
4,241,100 deaths, mostly from ischemic heart disease (1,521,100 energy harvesters exploiting the contact electrification and the electro­
deaths), cerebrovascular disease (898,100 deaths) and lung disease static induction phenomena [8]. From the literature study [9], TENGs
(863,600 deaths) [1]. Polluted air is directly connected to the pollutants seem to be the most efficient solution to harvest airflow energy, even if
emitted by the transportation, the industry and the domes­ electromagnetic generators (EMGs) [10,11] are also suitable energy
tic/commercial heating [2]. Therefore, the air quality has to be moni­ harvesters but have a higher environmental footprint. Another solution
tored, especially in cities where cars are still widely used by commuters relies on piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENGs) [12,13]. However, they
[3]. In order to obtain accurate data in urban area, multiple sensor nodes are clearly less efficient than TENGs and EMGs.
have to be deployed in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) [4]. With the Moreover, TENGs shape factor can more easily fit to complex

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: blayac@emse.fr (S. Blayac).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861
Received 22 May 2023; Received in revised form 30 July 2023; Accepted 2 September 2023
Available online 9 September 2023
2211-2855/© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
E. Kharbouche et al. Nano Energy 117 (2023) 108861

geometrical shapes, where airflows can be efficiently harvested. In cylinder along the surface or falling top-down between electrodes. Next,
2015, TENGs were used to harvest low-frequency water wave energy the electrical performances of the primary stage are studied as a function
thanks to a rolling ball [14]. Since then, performances of free-standing of ball and triboelectric materials, ball diameter, number of balls and
triboelectric balls in sphere unit were investigated for blue energy har­ rotating speed. Afterwards, we study and model the secondary stage
vesting [15–18]. This technique allows to reduce frictions between dedicated to the electrical power amplification and transfer to a stator.
triboelectric layers in order to maximize the TENGs durability [19]. In The principle of operation is similar to that of rotary-sliding disk TENGs
return, the effective contact surface is less important, which weakens the [29–31], except that there is no contact between the disks and thus no
triboelectric effect. Using soft balls to achieve enhanced power density contact electrification at this stage, but also no friction loss. Indeed, the
may be a good option [20]. It is also possible to multiply the units for the main drawback of a contact coupling is that sparks occur between the
same TENG in order to achieve high output power density [21–25]. electrodes, which reduces the output performance. Therefore, a capac­
Another solution to increase TENGs power density is to use a two- itive coupling has been chosen to avoid brushes in the secondary stage as
stage architecture. In this configuration, a pump TENG injects charges implemented in Fig. S1. Moreover, the capacitive coupler is designed
into a main TENG through a floating layer [26] or a buffer capacitor with interdigitated electrodes [32] to amplify the output current. The
[27]. Thus, the pump TENG initiates the charges by triboelectric effect. output electrical performance is then investigated at the secondary
These charges are then accumulated in the main TENG that conse­ stage, where we demonstrate and explain a 27-fold increase of electrical
quently converts mechanical to electrical power through electrostatic power. A peak output power of 20.54 mW (24.45 W m− 2) at 500 RPM is
induction in output electrodes. Since output power has a quadratic obtained, which ranks our newly developed device the best in class of its
dependence on accumulated charges [28], a strong multiplication of type (Tables S1 and S2). Using these performance results, an application
output power is obtained. scenario has been suggested for air quality monitoring.
In this study, we report the performance of a two-stage gravitational
energy harvester based on the triboelectric effect and a capacitive 2. Materials and methods
coupling between interdigitated electrodes. The non-contact gravita­
tional triboelectric nanogenerator (NCG-TENG) takes advantage of free 2.1. Fabrication of the primary stage
balls in motion into a rotating pipe (primary stage) and a circular con­
tactless capacitive coupler (secondary stage), as illustrated in Fig. 1a. We A poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) pipe (internal diameter =
first investigate how ball movements allow conversion of mechanical 26 mm, external diameter = 30 mm, length = 185 mm, Polydis) was
into electrical energy thanks to a complete theoretical analysis. Then, we chosen as a core cylinder to support the rotor (Fig. S2a). The flexible
expose our methodology to extract Norton equivalent model parameters electrodes were etched on an 81.5 mm × 75 mm copper (Cu)-polyimide
and relate them to physical parameters of the TENG. Two new operating (PI) film (thickness = 100 µm, Goodfellow Ltd.) to obtain 1-complemen­
modes are presented for the primary stage, with balls rolling inside the tary pair of electrodes (surface of 1 electrode = 0.84E-3 m2). The

Fig. 1. Structure of the non-contact gravitational triboelectric nanogenerator (NCG-TENG). a) Exploded view of the TENG showing the two-stage architecture. b)
Photograph of the TENG in the test bench showing the DC motor and the micro-positioner. c) Focused photo revealing the two stages: the main TENG with the
rectifier and the primary capacitor (primary stage in green), and the capacitive coupler (secondary stage in red).

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triboelectric layer is an 81.5 mm × 40 mm film directly stuck on the PI also measured using the digital oscilloscope through a low-noise current
surface with a spray adhesive (3M Company). The tested film materials preamplifier (Model SR570). The secondary open-circuit voltage was
are fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) (thickness = 250 µm, ADDEV measured using the digital oscilloscope through a 5 GΩ resistive load.
Materials) and polycarbonate (PC) (thickness = 250 µm, Goodfellow For all experiments, the real-time acquisition was done by Python lan­
Ltd.). At one end, the film was wrapped around a PMMA end-cap guage scripts. All finite element method (FEM) simulations were
(external diameter = 25.8 mm, length = 10 mm) illustrated in computed by COMSOL Multiphysics® software. The slow motion movies
Fig. S2a and it was dragged into the pipe in order to create a container in supplementary material were filmed using a compact high-speed
for balls. The balls shown in Fig. S2b were purchased from the CIMAP camera (Sony RX0 II) at 1000 frames per second with a 1920 × 1080
company and selected in different materials (zirconium oxide (ZrO2), pixels resolution.
glass (SiO2) and polyacetal (POM)). These ball materials were chosen for
their ability to form efficient triboelectric pair with FEP [33–37] and to 3. Working principle of the NCG-TENG
be commercially available in spherical form in order to propose an
easy-to-make TENG. The material density and triboelectric charge The NCG-TENG is a two-stage rotational energy harvester as depic­
density (TECD) [35] of various practical materials are compared in ted in Fig. 1c. The primary stage is the main TENG where small balls are
Table S3, in terms of power density normalized to frequency. At the free to move into a closed rotating pipe (Fig. S2a). The secondary stage is
opposite side, the container was sealed with a resin part printed with a a circular capacitive coupler based on non-contact coupling between
stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer (Formlabs Form 3 +). The electrodes interdigitated pairs of electrodes (Fig. S3).
were connected to a rectifier circuit made with low-leakage diodes
(Nexperia BAV199) and a high-voltage capacitor (Kyocera 3.1. Operation of the primary stage
2225WC103KAT1A) for charge storage. The circuit is flexible and made
on a Cu-PI 100-µm thick film. The electrical connections between the The generation of electrical power in the primary stage is based on
TENG electrodes and the rectifier were done with wires noticeable in the successive ball movement inside the rotating pipe, tribo­
Fig. S2a. electrification process and induction of charges at the electrical termi­
nals. In order to properly explain the conversion of mechanical into
2.2. Fabrication and integration of the capacitive coupler as the electrical power, we present in the following section the physical
secondary stage modeling of the primary stage, and then derive the Norton equivalent
model of the triboelectric generator.
The PMMA pipe was cut after the rectifier in order to integrate a
rotor disk (diameter = 108 mm) sliced in a 5-mm thick PMMA sheet by a 3.2. Triboelectrification phase
laser cutting machine (Universal PLS6.75). A complementary pair of
electrodes (EP1 and EP2) was laser-cut (LPKF ProtoLaser S4) in a copper The movement of the balls inside the pipe induces multiple contacts
tape (thickness = 66 µm, 3M Company) to be bounded on the PMMA between balls surface and polymer film. This induces a tribo­
surface (Fig. S3). Each electrode consists of (nd) digits patterned in pe­ electrification process, implying the increase of positive charges at the
riodic angular sectors (αT), the angle between two digits of the same ball surface, and negative charges at the polymer film surface. After a
electrode. Three capacitive couplers have been manufactured with 8, 16 certain time, the amount of generated surface charges reaches a satu­
and 32 digits as shown in Fig. S4. A void sector was added between each ration value. The total amount of positive charges generated at balls
pair of electrodes to avoid air breakdown sparks. In order to isolate the surface (QB), is equal to the total amount of negative charges at polymer
electrodes, a 90-mm diameter PI film (thickness = 13 µm, Goodfellow film surface (QF). One can then deduce the relationship between space
Ltd.) was stuck on it with spray adhesive. The stator disk (diameter = charge densities at balls and polymer film surfaces (σB) and (σF),
124 mm) was also laser-cut in 5-mm thick PMMA sheet. The same respectively. Once a stable triboelectrification state has been reached,
interdigitated electrodes were bounded on the PMMA surface and a 90- stable periodic waveforms are generated at the contacts, which is
mm diameter PI film (thickness = 13 µm) was also stuck on the ES1 and studied in the next section.
ES2 electrodes. The stator disk can be adjusted toward the rotor disk
thanks to a micro-positioner (Fig. 1b) to control the gap between them 3.3. 2D electrostatic modeling of the primary stage
and a specific design was done to ensure a very precise gap spacing
between the two disks. To guarantee the concentricity, the stator disk is In order to explain and quantify the mechanical to electrical power
free to move along 4 screws thanks to 4 polyethylene (PE) foams (in­ transduction, the physical modeling of charge transfer induced at the
ternal diameter = 3 mm, external diameter = 10 mm, height = 10 mm, electrodes by the moving ball is investigated. First, the physical 2D
RS Pro). For the experiments, the NCG-TENG is connected to 3D printed rotating model developed within COMSOL Multiphysics®, comprises a
supports (Raise3D E2) by means of bearings (SKF 6001-Z) as explained layer of 12 balls that rotate around the pipe as depicted in Fig. 2a, where
in Fig. S5. The rotation was driven by a DC motor (Fig. 1b) through a 3D the rotation direction is represented by an arrow. The number of balls is
printed coupler, and a contact tachymeter (RS Pro) was used to monitor selected to sufficiently cover the surface of an electrode. As presented
the TENG rotating speed (N) noticeable in Movie S1. before, an equal amount of fixed charges are present at ball and polymer
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at film surfaces and the system is globally neutral. The displacement of
doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861. balls inside the pipe will thus result in the modification of local charge
balance and electrostatic forces acting on the device terminals. The
2.3. Measurement setup initial model considers electrostatic laws based on 2D Poisson equation
solution, dielectric properties of materials, surface charge state of ma­
The methodology to extract Norton equivalent model parameters terials, and boundary conditions at the terminals. The amount on charge
from the primary stage is presented in Fig. S6, where the primary (Q1) and (Q2) is induced at the electrodes by moving charge QB. In this
capacitor voltage (VCP) across the primary capacitor (CP) is acquired short-circuit condition, local neutrality can be satisfied near the balls
using a source measure unit (SMU) (Keithley 2636) through a resistance through electron transfer from one electrode to the other. As a result, the
ladder configuration. The coupling capacitors (CC) are monitored by a ball layer induces an equivalent negative charge in the nearest electrode.
capacitance meter (Agilent 4288 A). The root mean square (RMS) The rotating movement of balls inside the pipe thus induces an alter­
voltage across resistive loads was acquired using a digital oscilloscope native movement of charge between the electrodes, thus resulting in a
(LeCroy waveRunner 6100 A). The secondary short-circuit current was periodic and complementary time variation of Q1 and Q2 (Fig. 2b). In a

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Fig. 2. Models and FEM simulation results of the primary stage. a) Physical model of electrostatics with a layer of 12 rotating balls within the pipe (2D rotating
model). b) Simulated charge in short-circuit for the three models: 2D rotating, 2D vertical and 1D analytic. c) Simulated voltage in open-circuit for the three models.
d) Physical model using a single ball with concentrated charge in vertical movement (2D vertical model). This model is equivalent to the 2D rotating model when a
homogeneous balls layer moving around the pipe.

second simulation, the open-circuit operation is investigated. In this equations system, allowing calculation of output current and voltage
case, no current transfer can occur between the electrodes and the ball in any load condition. By simulating the short and open conditions
layer induces a voltage variation in the nearest contact. Connecting across the contacts of the 1D cross-section using COMSOL Multi­
electrode 1 to a zero reference potential, an alternating sinewave in physics®, the charge and voltage values shown in Fig. 2b-c are obtained.
electrode 2 is observed in Fig. 2c. The parameters of the simulation were The ball material carries the full positive charge at balls QB. Each side of
calibrated on actual measurements, in order to obtain a maximum the polymer film has a surface charge QF in much lower concentration
transferred charge of 35 nC, and an open-circuit voltage of +/− 4500 V. since it is distributed over a large area around the inner pipe. Calculation
The 2D vertical model considers a unique ball, as shown in Fig. 2d, of the electrostatic equilibrium of this system allows quantification
concentrating the full charge of the balls layer simulated in the 2D induced charge balance at the contacts Q1 and Q2. The electrical
rotating model. In this model, the ball moves along the vertical Y-axis as boundary condition V21 at the contacts is set by the external circuit,
depicted in Fig. 2d. The vertical position of the ball represents exactly either open, short or load. We consider here a fringing capacitance (Cfg),
the actual vertical position of the rotating ball layer. One can observe accounting for 2D spreading of the field lines, and the influence of pipe
that this simplification of the model allows a fair approximation of the plastic material dielectric properties. The study in load condition is
actual system (Fig. 2b-c). We further confirm this by calculating the made with the capacitance CP fed by a full rectifier.
impact of a horizontal displacement of the ball along the X-axis, which Connecting contact 1 to reference voltage, we can express V21
has a very limited impact on both transferred charge and voltage fluc­ voltage across the two metal contacts with all the parameters described
tuation. Thus, deriving a simplified 1D analytic electrostatic model of in Fig. S7a.
the primary stage generator in order to develop a simplified Norton [ ]
1 YB
model seems to be a relevant approach. V21 (YB ) = ⋅ QB ⋅ + (Q2 + QF + QB )⋅aT − QB ⋅aF (1)
A.ε0 εair
3.4. Derivation of Norton equivalent model of the primary stage generator In expression (1), all parameters are fixed, except voltage V21, ter­
minal charge Q2 and the average vertical ball layer position (YB). The
From the physical electrostatic model, we want to derive the Norton rotation movement will induce a sinusoidal time variation of YB, and
equivalent model in order to relate the potential output power of the subsequent time variation of (Q2, V21) couple. Calculating V21 and
device to the physical parameters. Fig. S7a shows a cross-section of the subtracting it at extreme values of YB when R is the internal radius of the
device, obtained from the 2D vertical model, which is used to elaborate pipe, we can derive the amplitude of intrinsic open-circuit voltage
the governing equations of the 1D analytic model. Solving Poisson (VOCi):
equation in this system results in Charge-Electric and Field-Voltage

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QB slope is conditioned by the primary internal impedance (ZP), related to

VOCi = R⋅ (2)
A.εair .ε0 Ceq and Cfg. As short-circuit current depends fundamentally on the
product between QB and f, it remains not affected by Cfg. Conversely,
Then, time variation of the terminal charge Q2 can be written down,
effective open-circuit voltage will suffer from an increase of Cfg. This
( )
A.ε0 QB model, though simplified, is relevant in giving insight on relationship
Q2 (t) = ⋅ V21 − ⋅YB (t) (3)
aT A.εair .ε0 between electric performance and physical parameters, and is especially
useful for device and output power optimization. Nevertheless, it as­
From this point, it is possible to determine the average current
sumes uniform movement of a ball layer and clearly does not catch
outside the terminal, when the rectifier and CP are connected, setting V21
complex ball movements. The study of mechanics and ball dynamics
to a constant load voltage (VLoad) during charge transfer. We calculate
from Movies S2–5 is available in Fig. S8.
the charge variation (ΔQ2) between the extreme values of charge when
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
YB is 0 and 2 R, corresponding to a half period of rotation. Doing this and
doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861.
introducing the equivalent capacitor (Ceq), the output current is pro­
portional to the rotation frequency (f):
3.5. Principle of the secondary stage
ΔQ2 4.A.ε0
I2 = T = f ⋅Ceq ⋅(VOCi − VLoad ) where Ceq = (4)
aT
2 The secondary stage consists of the capacitive coupler illustrated in
Considering the fringing capacitance Cfg connected in parallel to Ceq, Fig. 1a. Its working principle is shown in Fig. 3a, taking into account the
the load will not affect the primary short-circuit current (ISCP) but the periodic angular sector (αT) depicted in Fig. S3. The charges QEP1
primary open-circuit voltage (VOCP) amplitude. Finally, the output cur­ (positive) and QEP2 (negative) are respectively present on EP1 and EP2
rent is expressed as, electrodes when CP is charged by the primary stage and can be expressed
( ) as,
I2 = f ⋅ Ceq + Cfg ⋅(VOCP − VLoad ) where VOCP = k⋅VOCi with k
1 QEP1 = − QEP2 = CP .VCP (6)
= (5)
During the rotation, EP1 and EP2 electrodes are alternatively coupled
Cfg
1+ Ceq
to ES1 and ES2 electrodes through the coupling capacitors (CC) as illus­
The resulting I-V curve in these load conditions is summed up in trated Fig. 3a. In short-circuit condition, the charge on the ES1 electrode
Fig. S7b. This characteristic follows a decreasing straight trend, which (QES1) oscillates according to the relative rotor position compared to the

Fig. 3. Output current multiplication mechanism through the capacitive coupler of the secondary stage. a) 2D schematic describing the characteristic steps of the
capacitive coupling mechanism between EP and ES electrodes for a periodic angular sector (αT). b) Evolution of the simulated charge on the ES1 electrode (QES1) as a
function of the angle when the secondary electrodes are short-circuited and the gap between the rotor and stator is 100 µm. (I), (II), (III) and (IV) correspond to the
characteristic steps during an αT rotation. c) Output current model resulting in QES1 fit derivation over time when the air gap is 100 µm and the rotating speed (N) is
125 RPM. If the number of digits (nd) is doubled, the peak value and the frequency are also doubled. d) Evolution of the electrical potential on the ES1 electrode (VES1)
over time when the secondary electrodes are in open-circuit condition and ES2 electrode is grounded. While the frequency doubles with the number of digits, the peak
value remains constant.

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stator. This is shown in Fig. 3b, where we consider the maximum function of time. It appears that a sinusoidal model can fit the simulated
transferred charge of 35 nC in the primary stage to be QEP1 and an 100- QES1 (Fig. S10a) as follows,
µm air gap between the rotor and the stator. This result is extracted from
N.nd
the 3D FEM simulation of the simplified structure illustrated in Fig. S9a. QES1 (t) = Qmax ⋅sin(2.π.fd .(t − t0 ) ) where fd = (7)
60
The smaller the air gap, the closer the QES1 maximum (Qmax) tends to
QEP1, due to better coupling between the primary and the secondary where Qmax is the maximum charge induced in ES1 electrode when EP
electrodes as observed in Fig. S9b. First, EP1 is aligned to ES1 and QES1 is and ES electrodes are aligned at the time t0 and nd is the number of digits
minimum (I). When EP1 moves to ES2 (II), electrons are injected into ES2 of an electrode. We deduce the current in ES1 electrode (IES1) from (7) by
to counterbalance the positive charge QEP1. Then, the charge QES1 is derivation over time,
maximum when EP2 is aligned to ES1 electrode (III). After the step (III),
the negative charge on EP2 pushes back electrons from ES2 to ES1 elec­ IES1 (t) =
dQES1 (t)
= Imax ⋅cos(2.π .fd .(t − t0 ) ) where Imax = 2.π.fd .Qmax
trode (IV). dt
At a constant rotating speed N, the angle modification is proportional (8)
to the time. Therefore, we can consider the simulated charge QES1 as a For one period, the proposed model for IES1 is consistent with the

Fig. 4. Influence of the mechanical parameters on the electrical performances of the primary stage, where the dimensions of an electrode are 20.4 mm × 41 mm. a-b)
For each material, 266 balls of 2-mm diameter are investigated at 125 RPM. When a FEP film is used, the ZrO2 balls achieve the highest power of 91.5 µW. c) Effect of
ZrO2 balls diameter on the electrical characteristic at 125 RPM. The more the ball diameter is small, the more the output power is high. A maximum power of 152 µW
is reached for 1.587-mm diameter balls. d) The optimal number of 1.587-mm diameter balls in ZrO2 is searched at 125 RPM. The maximum power is attained when
the number of balls covers the surface of an electrode. e-f) Several rotating speeds are tested on 266 2-mm diameter ZrO2 balls. In the same operating mode, the
output power grows linearly over the rotating speed.

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short-circuit current measured on the generator as demonstrated in 4.1. Influence of ball and triboelectric layer materials
Fig. S10b. Finally, the sinusoidal model can also fit the electrical po­
tential measured on the ES1 electrode (VES1) when the ES2 electrode is First, Fig. 4a illustrates the investigation of three different materials
grounded (Fig. S10c) and it can be expressed as, of 2-mm diameter balls at 125 RPM when a FEP film is used. ZrO2 balls
demonstrate the highest output power of 91.5 µW while POM balls show
VCP
VES1 (t) = Vmax ⋅sin(2.π .fd .(t − t0 ) ) where Vmax = (9) the lowest output performance of 12.3 µW. According to the triboelec­
2
tric series [35–37], glass outlines the biggest TECD of 38.63 µC m− 2
In summary, both current and voltage frequencies are proportional whereas for ZrO2 is 0.09 µC m− 2. However, ZrO2 has the highest density
to the rotating speed N and the number of electrode digits nd. The (6000 kg m− 3) among the three materials tested. It can be seen in
maximum current (Imax) can be multiplied by nd as demonstrated in Movies S6–7, for similar rotation speed, glass and POM balls stay stuck
Fig. 3c. In contrast, the maximum voltage (Vmax) only depends on the on the FEP film due to the electrostatic force (FE) and the centrifugal
voltage between the primary electrodes (EP1 and EP2). Thus, Vmax is force (FC) influence, but this is not observed with ZrO2 balls. For them,
constant when VCP tends to the primary open-circuit voltage VOCP and the weight along the Y-axis (FGy) is sufficient to overcome FE and FC
this is illustrated in Fig. 3d. forces. Consequently, all ZrO2 balls follow at least one of the two modes
of operation (sliding or falling mode presented in Fig. S8), resulting in
4. Results and discussions better performance. Another explanation for the performance difference
between ZrO2 balls and others could be the operating modes. Indeed, the
In order to characterize the performance of the NCG-TENG, the falling balls mode is not observed in Movies S6–7 for glass and POM
primary stage was studied before being connected to the secondary stage materials. In contrast, a mix of the two operating modes is noticeable in
(Fig. 4). Different mechanical parameters (ball and triboelectric mate­ Movie S3 when ZrO2 balls are used. This visual observation is confirmed
rials, ball diameter, number of balls and rotating speed) are investigated by I-V curves in Fig. 4a as for glass and POM balls follow a linear trend,
thanks to I-V curves. For each experiment, the maximum power is whereas the I-V curve for ZrO2 balls is clearly non-linear.
extracted from these curves (Fig. S6) and the number of balls is chosen to Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
cover only one electrode surface. This means that more the balls diam­ doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861.
eter is small, more the number of balls to maintain the same covered The selection of FEP material for the triboelectric layer was based on
surface is high. After connection to the secondary stage, N and the its high TECD of -249.42 µC m− 2 [37]. In opposition, a film material of
number of electrode digits nd are considered to highlight the strong PC with a low TECD of -24.4 µC m− 2 [37] was tested and the results
frequency dependence of the TENG output power (Fig. 5). were compared to the FEP film I-V curve in Fig. 4b. An output power of

Fig. 5. Output performance of the NCG-TENG after the secondary stage when 1.587-mm diameter ZrO2 balls are used in the primary stage. a-b) Effect of the
electrode digits number of the capacitive coupler on the output performance at 125 RPM. The electrical circuit (I) was used to investigate the load impedance
matching. At the same time, the short-circuit current (VOUT = 0 V) is directly proportional to the number of electrode digits (nd) and the open-circuit voltage (IOUT =
0 µA) is constant. c) Effect of the rotating speed on the output performance for an 8-digit capacitive coupler. d) Investigation of the TENG performance with 32-elec­
trode digits for different capacitor sizes. At 500 RPM, a power of 20.54 mW is produced by the TENG when a 1-µF capacitor (CS) is connected to the circuit (II).

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E. Kharbouche et al. Nano Energy 117 (2023) 108861

79.5 µW is observed, which closely resembles that obtained with an FEP 4.5. Average power density of the primary stage
film. One possible explanation is a positive charge saturation on the balls
surface prior to that of the film. Finally, the material of the triboelectric The literature review in Table S1 compares performances of free-
layer becomes less crucial when ZrO2 balls are used, as its TECD is standing balls TENGs to those of the primary stage when the surface
relatively weak. In all the following experiments, ZrO2 and FEP are reference is 1-electrode area (equal to 20.4 mm × 41 mm). The rotating
respectively adopted as the ball and polymer film materials. ball-mill-inspired TENG (BMI-TENG) [19] appears to be as efficient as
the primary stage, but its operating frequency is more than 3 times
4.2. Influence of the ball diameter higher. Moreover, the literature tends to focus on peak power density,
which is always far superior to average power density. The average
Three different diameters are examined at 125 RPM and results are power density of the primary stage is 181.95 mW m− 2 from an average
presented in Fig. 4c. Best output power performance is recorded with the power of 152 µW at 125 RPM. When the reference is changed to a vol­
smallest balls (1.587-mm diameter). Under this condition, the TENG ume reference as presented in Table S2, the average power density of the
produces 152 µW whereas only 48.2 µW is produced with 3-mm diam­ primary stage is 6.98 W m− 3. Here, the volume reference is the inner
eter balls. It has been observed in Movies S3, S8, and S9 that the smaller cylinder (diameter = 26 mm, height = 41 mm) where balls are placed.
the ball diameter is, the further the ball climbs up the pipe surface, due In our work, the output power density of the primary stage exceeds the
to their lightness. The 1.587-mm diameter balls can climb until the top one reported for the BMI-TENG by at least a factor of two.
of the pipe and then fall along the entire pipe diameter, which means
that balls velocity increases and consequently enhancing the current 4.6. Output performance of the NCG-TENG
flowing between the electrodes. The primary short-circuit current (ISCP)
is directly equal to the current ICP when VCP is zero. In Fig. 4c, ISCP is The primary stage is now coupled to the capacitive coupler to form
equal to 164 nA for 1.587-mm diameter balls. The primary open-circuit the NCG-TENG. In the primary stage, 422 ZrO2 balls of 1.587-mm
voltage (VOCP) is limited to 2000 V by current leakages in the rectifier diameter are placed as they gave the best performances. The capaci­
and by the measurement range of the SMU. As illustrated in Fig. S6, VOCP tive coupler gap is tuned in order to maximize and set the values CC1 and
can be extracted from the intersection of the linear fit of the data and the CC2 (Fig. 3a) at 100 pF during the experiments. First, a resistive load (RL)
X-axis. Finally, VOCP is extrapolated to 4509 V. is connected between the ES1 and ES2 electrodes to investigate the load
Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at impedance matching. The results presented in Fig. 5a, confirm that the
doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861. output power (POUT) is proportional to the number of electrode digits
(nd). Using an 8-digit capacitive coupler at 125 RPM, POUT is 1.24 mW
compared to 152 µW produced by the primary stage. When N is con­
4.3. Influence of the number of balls stant, nd is a multiplying factor for the output current (IOUT) as illustrated
in Fig. 5b, where doubling nd doubles IOUT. This experimental observa­
In all experiments, the number of balls was determined to ensure full tion confirms the theoretical analysis carried out in Fig. 3. Furthermore,
coverage of the electrode surface, thereby maximizing the amount of the output voltage (VOUT) remains constant even if nd increases, since
charges QB rotating in the primary stage. However, an excessive number VOUT only depends on the voltage VCP. Similarly, POUT raises linearly
of balls may cause them to extend beyond the electrode surface, leading with N due to the relationship between the current and the frequency
to undesirable charge transfers. In addition, for optimum efficiency, the demonstrated in (8). This is confirmed by the experiment in Fig. 5c. At
balls must form a unique layer, enabling free balls movements in either 600 RPM, the NCG-TENG can deliver an average power of 6.39 mW,
the sliding or falling mode. A significant number of balls can result in which is 5 times higher than the power recorded at 125 RPM. Finally, RL
multiple layers stacking, leading to compromise ball performance. To is substituted by a full-bridge rectifier to investigate the power across a
validate this hypothesis, experimental tests are conducted using 1.587- storage capacitor (CS) as highlighted in Fig. 5d. In this configuration, the
mm diameter balls, which have demonstrated the highest output power is the derivative of the energy stored in CS with respect to time, as
power. The outcomes, shown in Fig. 4d, confirm that the optimal explained in Fig. S11. Three different sizes of CS were tested and a peak
number of balls is directly dependent of the electrode surface. In our power of 20.54 mW at 500 RPM was observed for 1 µF, which is the
specific case, employing 422 balls of 1.587-mm diameter covered an matching capacitance. In summary, a 32-digit capacitive coupler is able
electrode and resulted in the most favorable performances. to boost the NCG-TENG output power density to 24.45 W m− 2 when the
reference is 1-electrode area of the primary stage (Table S1), which is to
4.4. Influence of the rotating speed (N) our knowledge the best-published performance. A stability test was
conducted to verify the sustainable energy collection capability of the
The linearity between N and the output current has been highlighted NCG-TENG in Fig. S12. After running for 36 h at 300 RPM (equivalent to
in the analytic model. Therefore, several N are investigated with 2-mm 648,000 cycles), more than 90% of the peak current is sustained across a
diameter ZrO2 balls in Fig. 4e-f. This ball diameter has been chosen to 10 MΩ resistive load. This result is satisfactory, especially considering
offer more freedom in terms of rotating speed. Several tests have been the reliability tests conducted by Qin et al. [19], where 80.13% of the
carried out with 1.587-mm diameter balls, but they tend to stick directly transferred charge was preserved after 5000 cycles.
to the pipe surface as the centrifugal force FC increases under the in­
fluence of the rotating speed. As a result, the proportionality between N 4.7. Application scenario
and ISCP (VCP = 0 V) is observed in Fig. 4e, as well as a constant VOCP (ICP
= 0 nA). As explained in the analytic model, the voltage VOCP depends This study emphasizes the great potential of the NCG-TENG in
on the charge QB, which saturates at a certain time. Finally, the output achieving high power density. Hence, using wind energy to power an air
power (PCP) shown in Fig. 4f grows linearly according to N until 300 quality monitoring application is proposed. A custom-made plenum
RPM. The observed operating mode is a mix between sliding and falling chamber substitutes the DC motor to generate a controlled airflow as
balls mode. Above 300 RPM, a change in operating mode to a stationary shown in Movie S10. In this scenario, the propeller is driven by an
mode is observed (Movie S5). In this situation, balls accumulated in the airflow of 12 m s− 1, leading to a rotating speed of the pipe of 280 RPM
bottom of the pipe and electrodes turn around them. The stationary and charging a 1-µF capacitor to 415 V in 60 s. Following the method­
mode goes on up to 650 RPM when the centrifugal force sticks the balls ology outlined in Fig. S11, a power of 6 mW is generated.
on the pipe surface (Movie S4). In this situation, PCP drops to zero since Supplementary material related to this article can be found online at
the balls do not induce charge movement in the electrodes. doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861.

8
E. Kharbouche et al. Nano Energy 117 (2023) 108861

Subsequently, the feasibility of powering the air quality monitoring administration, Funding acquisition, Writing – review & editing.
application (as illustrated in Fig. S13a) is explored. Based on power
measurement (Fig. S13b) conducted on the object, the average power
required for a measurement and data transmission operation is Declaration of Competing Interest
13.85 mW. This power (PON) is consumed during the time (TON) lasting
for 6.5 s. After an operation, the system enters in sleep mode and con­ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
sumes an average power (POFF) of 0.0036 mW during the time (TOFF). interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
This time can be adjusted to reduce the average power consumption the work reported in this paper.
(PMEAN) expressed as,
Data availability
PON • TON + POFF • TOFF
PMEAN = (10)
TON + TOFF Data will be made available on request.
To achieve power balance, PMEAN must be set equal to 6 mW. In this
case, TOFF is calculated as follows, Acknowledgments
PON − PMEAN
TOFF = TON • (11) This work was supported by IPCEI Flexeo project funded by the
PMEAN − POFF
French Ministry of Industry. Part of this work was done with the support
Finally, the connected object should remain in sleep mode for 8.5 s to of ID-Fab (Prototyping platform: project funded by the European
attain PMEAN for a subsequent operation. However, this outcome can Regional Development Fund, the French state and local authorities).
only be considered when using an impedance matching circuit to extract
the maximum power available at 50–70% of the open-circuit voltage as Appendix A. Supporting information
illustrated in Fig. 5d. Zhang et al. [38] proposed a high voltage condi­
tioning circuit based on a switching strategy, achieving an efficiency of Supplementary data associated with this article can be found in the
35%. Consequently, TOFF is increased from 8.5 s to 36.4 s. With an online version at doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2023.108861.
operation conducted every minute, it would be possible to accomplish
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