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Charge-Capacitance Channel Decomposition Reveals Fabrication-Tolerant Design Windows for Disk Triboelectric
Shenchen Liu1,2, Yangshi Shao1,2, Xuhong Feng1,2
1Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101400, China.
Materials (Basel, Switzerland)
|June 26, 2026
Summary
Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) designs optimized for peak performance are sensitive to geometric variations. This study identifies mixed operating regimes that offer greater tolerance to perturbations, improving TENG device robustness.
Area of Science:
- Energy harvesting
- Nanotechnology
- Materials science
Background:
- Disk triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) aim for high figure of merit (FOMS).
- Peak TENG designs are often located in regions with steep geometric gradients, making them sensitive to manufacturing variations.
- A ±10% geometric perturbation can reduce FOMS by up to 97.3% near optimal designs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To decompose TENG FOMS into charge-transfer and capacitance channels.
- To develop a predictive model for TENG performance across various design parameters.
- To identify design regions that offer improved tolerance to geometric perturbations.
Main Methods:
- Decomposed FOMS into charge-transfer (Qsc,MACRS) and capacitance (Csum-1) channels.
- Trained a multi-output surrogate model using 1944 COMSOL simulations with a physics consistency constraint.
- Evaluated 7776 design points across electrode-pair number, h/R, d/R, and dielectric constant.
Main Results:
- Identified 58.6% charge-dominant, 36.1% mixed, and 5.3% capacitance-dominant design spaces.
- Higher dielectric constants shift behavior towards capacitance limitation; larger air gaps favor charge limitation.
- Mixed-regime designs demonstrated significantly better tolerance to geometric perturbations compared to peak-FOMS designs.
Conclusions:
- Mixed-regime TENG designs offer superior robustness against geometric variations.
- The developed surrogate model and analysis framework enable pre-fabrication screening of tolerant TENG designs.
- An open-source interface facilitates the identification of limiting mechanisms and selection of robust TENG candidates.
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