TENGs were first reported in 2012 by Zhong Lin Wang and colleagues, and they work by exploiting a phenomenon most people regard as a nuisance: static electricity. When two materials with different electron affinities repeatedly contact and then separate, electrons transfer between them, leaving one surface positively charged and the other negatively charged. As the surfaces part, the accumulated charge creates a potential difference that drives electrons through an external circuit, producing usable electrical output. Wang later grounded the technology in theory by extending classical Maxwell’s equations through the concept of displacement current, showing that the time-dependent change in surface polarization acts as the primary driving force for induced current. Unlike conventional electromagnetic generators that rely on magnetic flux, TENGs generate current through dynamic electrostatic potential changes caused by periodic mechanical deformation, which makes them exceptionally good at harvesting low-frequency biomechanical energy such as walking, breathing, heartbeat or organ motion.

This output profile, high voltage combined with low current and pulsed waveforms, is precisely what makes TENGs attractive for oncology. Conventional electrical stimulation therapies require external power supplies, wired instrumentation and bulky equipment; electroporation systems use high-voltage pulses that risk collateral tissue damage; and tumor-treating fields, while clinically validated in selected malignancies, demand continuous device wear and carry high treatment costs. TENG systems, by contrast, are flexible, lightweight, biocompatible and entirely self-powered, drawing their energy from the body’s own movement. The devices operate in four fundamental modes: vertical contact-separation, single-electrode, linear sliding and freestanding triboelectric-layer configurations. Each mode shares the same underlying physics but differs in structure and motion pattern, giving engineers the flexibility to embed TENGs in wearables, implantables, smart textiles and self-powered environmental monitors.

One of the most striking applications described in the review is cancer prevention through environmental monitoring. Because most TENG platforms cannot yet detect tumor biomarkers directly, researchers have focused them on the carcinogenic exposures that precede malignancy. For respiratory cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, Wang and colleagues built a respiration-driven formaldehyde sensor using a titanium carbide MXene and ammonium-functionalized carbon nanotube triboelectric layer that detected the carcinogen at concentrations as low as 10 parts per billion, with response and recovery times of just 51 and 57 seconds. Yang and colleagues coupled a rotating TENG to a photocatalytic purification system, boosting formaldehyde degradation to 79.2 percent within 90 minutes, roughly 13 percent better than uncoupled systems. For benzene, Khandelwal and colleagues created a self-powered cellulose acetate and PVDF-titania sensor that achieved an 80 percent response at high concentrations and included a built-in alarm circuit requiring no external battery.

Particulate matter, another major lung cancer risk, has been tackled with triboelectric air filtration systems. Li and colleagues showed that a PTFE and polyester fiber-based filter raised short-term filtration efficiency from 36.7 percent to 74.6 percent and removed 99 percent of PM2.5 within 30 minutes, while Zheng and colleagues demonstrated a filter-free electrostatic purifier that used a TENG generating roughly 2 kilovolts to cut PM2.5 concentration in a test chamber from 954 to 50 micrograms per cubic meter in under 200 seconds, with minimal ozone production. For skin cancer, Zhang and colleagues developed a portable ultraviolet photodetector powered by a contact-separation TENG producing about 60 volts per cycle, and Cheng and colleagues wove TENG fibers into a multifunctional fabric offering an ultraviolet protection factor of 328, UV transmittance of only 0.21 percent, radiative cooling that kept the surface nearly 7 degrees Celsius cooler than cotton, and antibacterial inhibition rates above 98 percent against common pathogens.

The preventive reach of TENGs extends into the gastrointestinal tract, liver, colon and oral cavity. He and colleagues built an ethanol vapor sensor from a beta nickel hydroxide and MXene composite that detected exhaled ethanol below 200 parts per million with response and recovery times of 15 and 4 seconds even at 87 percent relative humidity, enabling battery-free screening for alcohol-related cancer risk. Cai and colleagues created a wood-based wireless gas sensor that detects ammonia released by spoiling food, a surrogate marker for aflatoxin, the well-known liver carcinogen, distinguishing clean air from 340 parts per million ammonia with recovery times under 11 seconds. Guo and colleagues went further, integrating a TENG producing roughly 380 volts with an electrowetting valve and a paper microfluidic device to automate enzyme-linked detection of alpha-fetoprotein, a hepatocellular carcinoma biomarker, completing the entire analysis in 260 seconds. Against Escherichia coli O157:H7, a microbe linked to colorectal cancer, Jin and colleagues’ rotating TENG powered ultraviolet lamps that reduced bacterial contamination on apple surfaces to 42 percent of original levels within an hour, while Luo and colleagues used a nine-thousand-volt TENG output to inactivate roughly 98 percent of E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus in water through electroporation.

On the therapeutic side, the review catalogues a series of remarkable preclinical results. Khayamian and colleagues developed a TENG-driven balloon catheter for irreversible electroporation of breast cancer tissue left behind after breast-conserving surgery; treated mice showed a 94 percent reduction in tumor volume within 15 days, whereas untreated controls saw tumors grow by 303 percent. Critically, irreversible electroporation induces immunogenic cell death, releasing tumor antigens and damage-associated molecular patterns that recruit dendritic cells and activate T cell responses, converting a local ablation into a systemic anticancer stimulus. Li and colleagues’ braided direct-current TENG, delivering 8,000 volts through stimulation needles inserted directly into tumors, shrank tumor mass by about 87 percent in mice within two weeks without damaging surrounding vessels. In the catalytic domain, Zhong and colleagues showed that TENG-generated electric fields modulate the d-band electrons of copper single-atom nanozymes, amplifying free radical production and oxidative tumor damage, while Yao and colleagues achieved an 83.6 percent tumor inhibition rate using electrical stimulation alone by boosting nanozyme catalytic activity fourfold and increasing current flow through conductive hydrogel injection.

Gas therapy and gene delivery round out the therapeutic arsenal. Yao and colleagues built a wearable stretchable TENG that wirelessly powers an implantable nitric oxide releasing device for glioma, increasing nitric oxide release by 183 percent compared with button cells and achieving at least 90.9 percent tumor inhibition over 14 days, with complete eradication in one case. Because nitric oxide above micromolar concentrations selectively kills cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue, and given its half-life of only a few minutes, such precision self-powered delivery is a significant advance. In gene therapy, Yang and colleagues demonstrated a TENG-driven nanowire electrode array that delivered siRNA to pancreatic cancer and leukemia cells in just 40 seconds, suppressing oncogene expression including KRAS and BCR-ABL while maintaining roughly 90 percent cell viability, with delivery efficiencies exceeding 95 percent in cells that are notoriously difficult to transfect. The team also paired an implantable magnetic TENG with doxorubicin-loaded red blood cells, using electroporation to trigger drug release at very low concentrations, and described ultrasound-activated Trojan nanogenerators combining electrical stimulation with catalytic therapy.

Perhaps most provocative is the emergence of triboelectric immunotherapy. Li and colleagues showed that a small fabric direct-current TENG, just 6.8 by 7 centimeters, could generate sufficient pulsed direct current to induce immunogenic cell death in tumor cells, driving dendritic cell maturation, T cell differentiation and durable antitumor immunity without any drug at all. The same group later combined this drug-free approach with CD19-targeted CAR-T cells against solid tumors, promoting M1 macrophage polarization, reducing regulatory T cells and enhancing CAR-T infiltration to eradicate nearly 60 percent of tumor mass, with the CAR-T cells differentiating into memory T cells that provided long-term protection against recurrence. The authors caution that substantial obstacles remain before clinical translation: long-term biocompatibility and degradation studies are needed, electrophysiological risks such as unintended cardiac or nerve stimulation must be rigorously controlled, and output variability across devices and patients demands standardized fabrication, calibration and dosing protocols. Still, if those challenges can be met, TENG technology could bridge environmental sensing, behavioral modification and preventive oncology into a single sustainable framework, transforming biomechanical energy itself into a tool against cancer.

Subject of Research: Triboelectric nanogenerators for cancer prevention, therapy and immunotherapy

Article Title: Triboelectric nanogenerators for cancer prevention and therapy: a new paradigm in cancer management

Article References: Dandugudumula, R., & Shin, D. Y. (2026). Triboelectric nanogenerators for cancer prevention and therapy: a new paradigm in cancer management. Advances in Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 2(1), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44405-026-00048-x

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44405-026-00048-x

Keywords: triboelectric nanogenerators, cancer therapy, energy harvesting, immunotherapy, drug delivery, electroporation, carcinogen monitoring, nanozymes, CAR-T cells, wearable sensors, implantable devices, nitric oxide therapy