Rotation-To-Translation Enabled Robust Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Wind Harvesting and Sensing

Abstract

Disc and cylinder-based triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have great potential for harvesting wind energy. However, a significant challenge faced by these TENGs is the wear issues arising from the required close contact between tribo-materials, especially at high frequencies. In response to this challenge, a gear-slider TENG (GS-TENG) is designed to transition from continuous close-contact friction mode to intermittent contact. Working in unison with the central gear and two sliders, four units housed within GS-TENG yield electrical output through periodic contact and separation. During a durability test of 845 000 cycles, the short-circuit current only experiences a slight decrease, going from 25.38 to 24.03 µA, retaining 94.68% of its initial value. Operating at a matched impedance of 6 MΩ, GS-TENG at M1 achieves a peak power density of 386 mW m−2, exceeding some previously proposed solutions in wind harvesting. When integrated into a wind speed sensing system, the GS-TENG has a wide sensing range (13.1 to 28 m s−1) with a maximum error of 3.39%. This work demonstrates a rotation-to-translation strategy that lays the foundation for long-term, high-frequency wind energy harvesting and the development of a self-powered wind sensing system.