Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) are optimistic that this breakthrough could lead to nano-devices as efficient as today’s solar cells.

Surrey’s devices can convert small amounts of everyday mechanical energy, such as motion, into significantly higher electrical power, similar to how an amplifier boosts sound in an electronic system.

If a traditional nanogenerator produces ten milliwatts of power, this new technology could ramp that up to over 1,000 milliwatts, making it ideal for energy harvesting in various everyday applications.

ATI’s nanogenerator operates like a relay team – instead of one electrode (the runner) passing energy (charge) by itself, each runner collects a baton (charge), adds more, and then passes all batons to the next runner, boosting the overall energy accumulated in a process called the charge regeneration effect.

ATI postgraduate research student Delowar Hussain said that nanogenerators dream of capturing and using energy from everyday movements, such as your morning run, mechanical vibrations, ocean waves, or opening a door.

“The key innovation with our nanogenerator is that we’ve fine-tuned the technology with 34 tiny energy collectors using a laser technique that can scale up for manufacture to increase energy efficiency further,” he said

He added that what’s exciting is that their little device with high energy harvesting density could one day rival the power of solar panels and be used to run anything from self-powered sensors to smart home systems that never need a battery change.

The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) device can capture and turn the energy from simple, everyday movements into electricity. It uses materials that become electrically charged when they come into contact and then separate—similar to when you rub a balloon on your hair, which sticks due to static electricity.

Research Fellow Dr Bhaskar Dudem added: “We will soon launch a company focused on self-powered, non-invasive healthcare sensors using triboelectric technology. Innovations like these will enable us to drive new spin-out activities in sustainable health tech, improve sensitivity, and emphasise industrial scalability.”