Triboelectric energy harvester using frequency up-conversion to generate from extremely low frequency strain inputs

We developed a flexible triboelectric energy harvester that can generate from extremely low frequency strain inputs. The harvester consists of flexible substrate, cantilever, sagged film which is partially bonded beneath the cantilever and permanent magnets. When the cantilever is deformed, contact and separation motion between the cantilever and sagged film occurs and it makes electricity by triboelectric effect. By adopting frequency up-conversion mechanism, the cantilever vibrates at its natural frequency and it makes higher output power by fast contact and separation. The peak-to-peak and RMS output power were 267.38 μW and 0.20 μW for a resistive load of 2 MΩ at 0.5 Hz strain input, respectively.