Metamaterials, as artificially engineered structures with unconventional mechanical and acoustic properties, have recently emerged as a transformative platform for enhancing the capabilities of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) systems. Since the invention of TENG devices, extensive efforts have been devoted to improving charge density, output stability, and overall performance. Conventional performance optimization strategies mainly rely on device-level improvements such as surface chemistry modification, microstructuring, and nanopatterning. However, limited emphasis has been given to system-level development of smart self-powered intelligent systems. The integration of metamaterials into TENG devices opens a new era by enabling frequency-selective localization, mechanical impedance matching, and controllable deformation pathways. These engineered mechanical structures not only improve energy harvesting efficiency but also introduce new functionalities into the system. This review systematically summarizes recent advances in metamaterial-integrated TENG systems across four major application domains: (i) energy harvesting, (ii) acoustic telecommunication and acoustic-to-electric conversion, (iii) self-powered sensing, and (iv) vibration suppression and monitoring. Overall, the integration of metamaterials into TENG systems will pave the way for next-generation sustainable, intelligent, self-powered devices with diverse functionalities.

Recent studies have focused on enhancing the efficiency of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using aluminum (Al) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This research investigates how surface morphology and material structure affect energy generation. By layering PDMS/Al and creating pyramid-shaped patterns, the study found that increasing the number of PDMS/Al layers significantly boosts the output voltage, reaching over 234 mV with three layers. Additionally, increasing the number of pyramid structures from 1 to 36 on PDMS surfaces, while maintaining the same contact area, led to a notable rise in generated voltage due to charge concentration at the pyramid tips. Higher pyramid angles also amplified this effect. These results highlight the importance of structural optimization in maximizing the energy output of TENGs, offering a promising route for more efficient energy harvesting.

In the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, electronic devices are becoming increasingly miniaturized and lightweight to overcome spatial limitations, necessitating lower power consumption. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), which convert mechanical energy into electrical energy, offer an ideal solution as small-scale power generators for these compact devices. Recent research has focused on various materials and structural designs to maximize the output of triboelectric energy harvesters, highlighting the growing importance of theoretical structure analysis software for precise evaluation. COMSOL Multiphysics software provides an accurate method for simulating the electrical characteristics of TENGs. This Tutorial Status Report introduces the process of modeling TENGs and analyzing their electrical output using COMSOL Multiphysics

A triboelectric nanogenerator is a promising energy harvester operated by the combined mechanism of electrostatic induction and contact electrification. It has attracting attention as eco-friendly and sustainable energy generators by harvesting wasting mechanical energies. However, the power generated in the natural environment is accompanied by low frequencies, so that the output power under such input conditions is normally insufficient amount for a variety of industrial applications. In this study, we introduce a non-contact rotational triboelectric nanogenerator using pedaling and gear systems (called by P-TENG), which has a mechanism that produces high power by using rack gear and pinion gear when a large force by a pedal is given. We design the system can rotate the shaft to which the rotor is connected through the conversion of vertical motion to rotational motion between the rack gear and the pinion gear. Furthermore, the system controls the one directional rotation due to the engagement rotation of the two pinion gears and the one-way needle roller bearing. The TENG with a 2 mm gap between the rotor and the stator produces about the power of 200 __ and turns on 82 LEDs under the condition of 800 rpm. We expect that P-TENG can be used in a variety of applications such as operating portable electronics or sterilizing contaminated water.

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a device that converts mechanical energy into electrical energy, and has been considered as a substitute for continuous power supply due to its high performance, simple structure and eco-friendliness. Recently, it is important to develop a TENG using a non-toxic material in order to use it as a power source for wearable, attachable, and body-embeddable electronics. Here, we developed a human friendly TENG using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) gel containing acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC), a non-toxic plasticizer. PVC gels were fabricated using various ratios of PVC and ATBC, and optimized by investigating dielectric properties, surface potential, output performance, and durability. The PVC gel based TENG generates output signals of 73 V and 4.3 μA, i.e., a 5-fold enhancement in the output power compared to pristine PVC-based TENG. In addition, the PVC gel can be stretched over 500% of strain. This study is expected to be helpful in the future development of non-toxic wearable TENG.

Liquid-based Triboelectric nanogenerator (L-TENG) is one of the alternatives to solid-based Triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) because of the absence of surface damage which can decrease the durability of the generator. However, the L-TENG also has an obvious drawback of significantly lower output than that of S-TENG. This article produces water-sloshing-based electricity generating device (W-ED) with a new design of L-TENG that improves electrical output in portable form. The dual-electrode system, consisting of closed-loop circuit and inner electrode which enables water to contact directly in the bottle, can generate the open-circuit voltage and the short-circuit current of up to 348 V and 5.1 mA, respectively. By investigating the motion of water for each frequency, we propose that W-ED is suitable device for a variety of human motions. We expect that W-ED can be applied in small electrical devices or sensors in daily-use items.

ZnO nanowires were grown by hydrothermal synthesis process and piezoelectric poly vinylidenefluoride (PVDF) was then coated on top of the ZnO-nanowires by spray-coating technique. Thecomposite layer of ZnO-nanowires/PVDF was applied to an energy harvesting device based onpiezoelectric-conversion mechanism. A defined mechanical force was given to the nanogenerator device toevaluate their electric power generation characteristics, where output current density and voltage wereexamined. Electric power generation property of the ZnO-nanowires/PVDF based nanogenerator devicewas compared to that of the nanogenerator device with ZnO-nanowires as single active layer. Effect ofthe ZnO-nanowires on improvement of power generation was discussed to examine its feasibility for thenanogenerator device.