Enhancing output performance of piezoelectric nanogenerator via negative Poisson's ratio effect

Enhancing the output performance of piezoelectric nanogenerators (PENG) is crucial for the timely realization of self-powered IoT sensor clusters. Currently, conventional methods for retrofitting PENG lack universality. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel negative Poisson's ratio effect to effectively accelerate and enhance charge separation, increasing the output power from 0.6 mW to 4.0 mW, a 6.7-fold increase, and broadening the bandwidth from 0.7 Hz to 1.8 Hz, a 2.6-fold improvement. The negative Poisson's ratio effect is a mechanical metamaterial property that can be served as a universal method to enhance the performance of all beam-type PENGs. Furthermore, the metamaterial PENG (MM-PENG), optimized by a genetic algorithm for multiple parameters, demonstrates a power density of 36.35 μW/mm³, far exceeding previously reported conventional PENGs (C-PENG) with plain substrate. Finally, the practical application of MM-PENG confirms its faster power supply rate compared to C-PENGs. This work presents a universally applicable and straightforward method for enhancing the performance of PENG.