Three Key Aspects of Electron Transfer Behavior in Single-Electrode Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Sensing Optimization

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things, self-powered sensing technology has become a crucial solution for scenarios where an external power supply is inconvenient or unavailable, such as wild monitoring and flexible wearables. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)-an excellent self-powered sensor, particularly in the single-electrode mode-demonstrates broad application prospects due to its simple structure and ease of integration. However, a comprehensive understanding of the electron transfer behavior of TENGs for performance optimization remains insufficient. Here, we investigate such behaviors from three key aspects-the polymer functional groups, the configurations of TENGs, and corona polarization. It is found that polymer functional groups critically determine electron transfer ability, with fluorinated polymers exhibiting superior performance across all configurations. Moreover, the configuration significantly influences electron transfer efficiency, where the sliding configuration vastly outperforms contact-separation configurations. Furthermore, the effect of corona polarization is highly configuration-dependent, improving performance in contact-separation configurations while generally reducing it in sliding configuration. These findings provide valuable theoretical guidance and practical strategies for optimizing the design and selecting appropriate materials and configurations of TENG-based self-powered sensors. They also pave the way for a new generation of highly efficient, miniaturized, and adaptive self-powered systems.