A Comprehensive Review of Floor-Integrated Triboelectric Nanogenerators from Different Perspectives.

Abstract

The harvesting of energy from movements is one of the purposes of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). Among the various devices designed to perform this function, floors are one of the primary ones, as they do not need to be individually fitted to each subject and can be manufactured and installed on a large scale. This work classifies previously published TENG-based floors based on their materials, electrical performance in terms of the voltage, current, and power they produce, and their application in different fields. The materials used have been correlated with other important aspects for floors, such as weather or flame resistance, sustainability, recyclability or biodegradability of materials, and price. The synthesis of the variety of TENG-based floor models, which incorporate novel materials, hybrid technologies, or various functionalities, among other characteristics, can enrich and inspire the reader to enhance the performance of future floor designs based on the triboelectric effect. In addition, a novel triboelectric floor design made of nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and fluorine kautschuk material is presented, along with the electrical power generated when tribolayers are in contact. For the three floor strips measuring 40 cm long × 4 cm wide and 1 mm thick, electrical current and voltage output was measured, achieving nearly 0.1 W (20 V & 4.5 mA) of electrical power generation.