Large Scale Triboelectric Nanogenerator and Self-Powered Flexible Sensor for Human Sleep Monitoring

AbstractAs a new-era of energy harvesting technology, the enhancement of triboelectric charge density of triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is always crucial for its large-scale application on Internet of Things (IoTs) and artificial intelligence (AI). Here, a microstructure-designed direct-current TENG (MDC-TENG) with rationally patterned electrode structure is presented to enhance its effective surface charge density by increasing the efficiency of contact electrification. Thus, the MDC-TENG achieves a record high charge density of ~5.4 mC m−2, which is over 2-fold the state-of-art of AC-TENGs and over 10-fold compared to previous DC-TENGs. The MDC-TENG realizes both the miniaturized device and high output performance. Meanwhile, its effective charge density can be further improved as the device size increases. Our work not only provides a miniaturization strategy of TENG for the application in IoTs and AI as energy supply or self-powered sensor, but also presents a paradigm shift for large-scale energy harvesting by TENGs.

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Mesoporous Highly-Deformable Composite Polymer for a Gapless Triboelectric Nanogenerator via a One-Step Metal Oxidation Process

Micromachines ◽

10.3390/mi9120656 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 656 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Hee Hwang ◽

Younghoon Lee ◽

Choongyeop Lee ◽

Youngsuk Nam ◽

Jinhyoung Park ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Triboelectric Nanogenerator ◽

Pressure Sensitivity ◽

Composite Polymer ◽

Pdms Film ◽

One Step ◽

Self Powered ◽

Triboelectric Nanogenerators ◽

Flake Structure

The oxidation of metal microparticles (MPs) in a polymer film yields a mesoporous highly-deformable composite polymer for enhancing performance and creating a gapless structure of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs). This is a one-step scalable synthesis for developing large-scale, cost-effective, and light-weight mesoporous polymer composites. We demonstrate mesoporous aluminum oxide (Al2O3) polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites with a nano-flake structure on the surface of Al2O3 MPs in pores. The porosity of mesoporous Al2O3-PDMS films reaches 71.35% as the concentration of Al MPs increases to 15%. As a result, the film capacitance is enhanced 1.8 times, and TENG output performance is 6.67-times greater at 33.3 kPa and 4 Hz. The pressure sensitivity of 6.71 V/kPa and 0.18 μA/kPa is determined under the pressure range of 5.5–33.3 kPa. Based on these structures, we apply mesoporous Al2O3-PDMS film to a gapless TENG structure and obtain a linear pressure sensitivity of 1.00 V/kPa and 0.02 μA/kPa, respectively. Finally, we demonstrate self-powered safety cushion sensors for monitoring human sitting position by using gapless TENGs, which are developed with a large-scale and highly-deformable mesoporous Al2O3-PDMS film with dimensions of 6 × 5 pixels (33 × 27 cm2).

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Self-powered ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions via N2 discharge driven by Tesla turbine triboelectric nanogenerators

Microsystems & Nanoengineering ◽

10.1038/s41378-020-00235-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kai Han ◽

Jianjun Luo ◽

Jian Chen ◽

Baodong Chen ◽

Liang Xu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Ammonia Synthesis ◽

High Energy ◽

Triboelectric Nanogenerator ◽

Ambient Conditions ◽

Waste Gas ◽

Simulated Waste ◽

High Rotation Speed ◽

Self Powered ◽

Triboelectric Nanogenerators

AbstractAmmonia synthesis using low-power consumption and eco-friendly methods has attracted increasing attention. Here, based on the Tesla turbine triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), we designed a simple and effective self-powered ammonia synthesis system by N2 discharge. Under the driving of the simulated waste gas, the Tesla turbine TENG showed high rotation speed and high output. In addition, the performance of two Tesla turbine TENGs with different gas path connections was systematically investigated and discussed. A controllable series-parallel connection with the control of gas supply time was also proposed. Taking advantage of the intrinsic high voltage, corona discharge in a N2 atmosphere was simply realized by a Tesla turbine TENG. With the flow of N2, the generated high-energy plasma can immediately react with water molecules to directly produce ammonia. The self-powered system achieved a yield of 2.14 μg h−1 (0.126 μmol h−1) under ambient conditions, showing great potential for large-scale synthesis.

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