Energy and environmental issues are becoming increasingly serious worldwide. Since the proposal of triboelectric nanogenerator in 2012, it has become the focus of many researchers as a clean and renewable micro and nano energy generation device. Based on CiteSpace visualization analysis software, 1908 journal papers on the research field of triboelectric nanogenerator retrieved from the Web of Science database were analyzed from the perspectives of publication year, citation number, publication source, institution, author and keyword. The research progress and hotspots in the field of triboelectric nanogenerator are summarized, trend of cutting-edge is predicted, which will provide a reference for better understanding of the research status of triboelectric nanogenerator field.