Amidst the high global reliance on petroleum, this study addresses energy inefficiency in beam-pumping units used for oil extraction. We developed a tubular solid–liquid triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on fluorinated polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films. Self-assembled surface modification with fluorosilane molecular chains enhanced charge transfer, achieving a 2.7-fold increase with 13F-PDMS. The enclosed tubular design utilizes periodic liquid-electrode contact to generate a volumetric effect. Experiments investigated the influence of liquid composition and device configuration on performance. Using a 1.69 mol/L FeCl3 solution with four series-connected units, the TENG reached 29 V and 263 nA, powering 150 LEDs. This demonstrates its potential for harvesting reciprocating mechanical energy from pumping units to reduce operational energy consumption.
Li et al. (Mon,) studied this question.