Network Topology Optimization of Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Effectively Harvesting Ocean Wave Energy

The emerging triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) network shows great potential in harvesting the ocean wave energy, which can help to achieve large-scale clean wave power generation. However, due to the lack of an effective networking strategy and theoretical guidance, the practicability of the TENG network is heavily restricted. In this paper, based on the typical spherical TENG, we investigated the networking design of TENGs. Four fundamental forms of electrical networking topology are proposed for large-scale TENG networks, and the influences of cable resistance and output phase asynchrony of each unit to the network output were systematically investigated. The research results show that the forms of electrical networking topology can produce an important influence on the output power of large-scale TENG networks. This is the first strategy analysis for the TENG network, which provides a theoretical basis and a universal method for the optimization design of large-scale power networks.