  Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are promising self-powering supplies for
a diverse range of intelligent sensing and monitoring devices, especially due
to their capability of harvesting electric energy from low frequency and
small-scale mechanical motions. Inspired by the fact that contact-separation
mode TENGs with small contact areas harvest high electrical outputs due to
fringing effect, this study employed discontinuity on the dielectric side of
contact-separation mode TENGs to promote fringing electric fields for the
enhancement of electrical outputs. The results reveal that the TENGs with more
discontinuities show higher overall electric performance. Compared to pristine
TENGs, the TENGs with cross discontinuities increased the surface charge by 50%
and the power density by 114%. However, one should avoid generating
discontinuities on tribonegative side of TENGs using metal blade within a
positive-ion atmosphere due to the neutralization through electrically
conductive metal blade. The computational simulation validated that the TENGs
with discontinuities obtained higher electrical outputs, and further
investigated the effect of discontinuity gap size and array distance on TENGs
performance. This study has provided a promising method for the future design
of TENGs using discontinuous structures.
