Self-Powered Triboelectric Vibration Sensor with Gap-and-Substrate-Tuned Design for Real-Time Monitoring of Automotive Engine Operating States

Continuous monitoring of vehicle engine vibration is a key enabler of real-time diagnostics, yet conventional accelerometers require an external power supply and fit poorly into the distributed sensor networks envisioned for next-generation vehicles. Triboelectric nanogenerators offer an attractive self-powered alternative, but their direct application to the vibration of a running passenger vehicle engine, and the explicit link between sensor design parameters and individual engine operating states, remains largely unexplored. Here, we address this gap by co-tuning the air gap and the substrate rigidity of a contact-separation triboelectric vibration sensor to the vibration spectrum of an automotive engine. A systematic 3 × 3 design sweep across three gap distances and three substrate types identifies a single configuration that simultaneously resolves the low-frequency idle band and the higher-frequency acceleration band of a four-cylinder gasoline engine. A frequency-amplitude response map confirms that the real engine operating points fall within the sensitive region of the optimized device, and an on-vehicle test demonstrates clean discrimination of all seven operating states, from ready to shut-down, without any external power. The results establish design guidelines for source-matched triboelectric vibration sensors and outline a practical path toward self-powered, wireless-ready engine health monitoring in future vehicles.