A low-cost approach for measuring electrical load currents in triboelectric nanogenerators

Research into the development of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) has exponentially expanded over the last 5 years with TENGs expected to be a prominent alternative energy-harvesting source in the near future. Notwithstanding the rapid progress in TENG development and their applications, the start-up cost of required research equipment and components remains high for new entrants into the field. A substantial portion of that cost is for the preamplifier, which is needed for measuring the output current of a TENG. Here, an ultra-low-cost device is presented that can measure the TENG output current, which is a crucial parameter in the characterization of TENG electrical performance. This alternative approach is expected to enable research groups in the future to partially offset the initial expense of instrumentation necessary for TENG research, and accelerate the development and applications of TENGs.