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  • Review Article
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Mutual promotion of triboelectric nanogenerators and field-effect transistors towards the IoT

Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering volume 2, pages 541–554 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The real-world deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructures faces high energy demands. To tackle this demand, triboelectric nanogenerators and field-effect transistors (FETs) led to the emergence of tribotronic transistors that enable active mechanosensation by converting mechanical stimuli into tribo-potential, and droplet electricity generators (DEGs) that enhance the efficiency of raindrop energy harvesting through the bulk effect of FET-inspired architectures. In this Review, we explore the working mechanisms and design principles of tribotronic transistors and DEGs, highlighting the key scientific and technical challenges that must be overcome for their seamless integration into global IoT networks. We highlight the development of advanced devices for IoT data collection, memory and processing, and ambient energy harvesting in near-perpetual IoT networks, facilitating advancements in IoT applications including tactile sensors, artificial synapses, energy harvesters and self-powered sensors. Finally, we discuss key areas requiring further study, including understanding fundamental mechanisms, optimizing system design and addressing practical challenges in the application of tribotronic transistors and DEGs for large-scale IoT networks and self-powered sensors.

Key points

  • The fundamentals of tribotronic transistors are discussed from the perspective of the working mechanism, materials selection and architecture design.

  • Typical tribotronic transistor-based Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as tactile sensors, memory and artificial synapses, are presented.

  • The advancements in droplet electricity generators (DEGs) are summarized, enhancing the understanding of their theoretical modelling and design strategies.

  • Ambient energy harvesters and self-powered sensors, developed based on DEGs, are highlighted for near-perpetual IoT networks.

  • Perspectives on key challenges for further development of techniques, arising from mutual promotion of triboelectric nanogenerators and field-effect transistors, to meet the needs of IoT development are presented.

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Fig. 1: Mutual promotion of triboelectric nanogenerators and field-effect transistors towards development of the Internet of Things.
Fig. 2: Fundamentals of tribotronic transistors.
Fig. 3: Representation of typical tribotronic transistor-based Internet of Things devices.
Fig. 4: Fundamentals of droplet energy generators.
Fig. 5: Typical Internet of Things devices based on the droplet energy generator.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB1210301), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 42276216 and U22A20112) and Shandong Postdoctoral Science Foundation (SDCX-ZG-202400209).

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Wenlong Ma, Yaxue Sun.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Advanced Marine Materials, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, China

    Wenlong Ma, Yaxue Sun, Congyu Wang & Peng Wang

  2. College of Marine Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China

    Yaxue Sun, Congyu Wang & Peng Wang

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  1. Wenlong Ma
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  2. Yaxue Sun
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  3. Congyu Wang
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  4. Peng Wang
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Contributions

W.M., Y.S. and C.W. surveyed the literature, and collected and researched data for the article. All authors contributed substantially to discussion of the content. W.M. and Y.S. wrote the article. W.M., Y.S. and P.W. reviewed and/or edited the manuscript before submission.

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Correspondence to Peng Wang.

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Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering thanks Guobiao Hu, Sumanta K. Karan, Parisa Fakhry and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Ma, W., Sun, Y., Wang, C. et al. Mutual promotion of triboelectric nanogenerators and field-effect transistors towards the IoT. Nat Rev Electr Eng 2, 541–554 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-025-00193-3

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