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Published By MDPI AG

2673-706x

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Hugo Gaspar ◽  
Gabriel Bernardo ◽  
Adélio Mendes

Over the last four years, tremendous progress has occurred in the field of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) and the champion power conversion efficiency (PCE) under AM1.5G conditions, as certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), is currently 18.2%. However, these champion state-of-the-art devices were fabricated at lab-scale using highly toxic halogenated solvents which are harmful to human health and to the environment. The transition of OPVs from the lab to large-scale production and commercialization requires the transition from halogenated-solvent-processing to green-solvent-processing without compromising the device’s performance. This review focuses on the most recent research efforts, performed since the year 2018 onwards, in the development of green-solvent-processable OPVs and discusses the three main strategies that are being pursued to achieve the proposed goal, namely, (i) molecular engineering of novel donors and acceptors, (ii) solvent selection, and (iii) nanoparticle ink technology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-180
Author(s):  
Jabir Zamir Minhas ◽  
Md Al Mahadi Hasan ◽  
Ya Yang

Innovations in nanogenerator technology foster pervading self-power devices for human use, environmental surveillance, energy transfiguration, intelligent energy storage systems, and wireless networks. Energy harvesting from ubiquitous ambient mechanical, thermal, and solar energies by nanogenerators is the hotspot of the modern electronics research era. Ferroelectric materials, which show spontaneous polarization, are reversible when exposed to the external electric field, and are responsive to external stimuli of strain, heat, and light are promising for modeling nanogenerators. This review demonstrates ferroelectric material-based nanogenerators, practicing the discrete and coupled pyroelectric, piezoelectric, triboelectric, and ferroelectric photovoltaic effects. Their working mechanisms and way of optimizing their performances, exercising the conjunction of effects in a standalone device, and multi-effects coupled nanogenerators are greatly versatile and reliable and encourage resolution in the energy crisis. Additionally, the expectancy of productive lines of future ensuing and propitious application domains are listed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 121-130
Author(s):  
Tong Tong ◽  
Guoxu Liu ◽  
Yuan Lin ◽  
Shaohang Xu ◽  
Chi Zhang

Beaufort scale of wind force monitoring is the basic content of meteorological monitoring, which is an important means to ensure the safety of production and life by timely warning of natural disasters. As there is a limited battery life for sensors, determining how to reduce power consumption and extend system life is still an urgent problem. In this work, a near-zero power triboelectric wake-up system for autonomous Beaufort scale of wind force monitoring is proposed, in which a rotary TENG is used to convert wind energy into a stored electric energy capacitor. When the capacitor voltage accumulates to the threshold voltage of a transistor, it turns on as an electronic switch and the system wakes up. In active mode, the Beaufort scale of wind force can be judged according to the electric energy and the signal is sent out wirelessly. In standby mode, when there is no wind, the power consumption of the system is only 14 nW. When the wind scale reaches or exceeds light air, the system can switch to active mode within one second and accurately judge the Beaufort scale of wind force within 10 s. This work provided a triboelectric sensor-based wake-up system with ultralow static power consumption, which has great prospects for unattended environmental monitoring, hurricane warning, and big data acquisition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-120
Author(s):  
Zhongda Sun ◽  
Minglu Zhu ◽  
Chengkuo Lee

Entering the 5G and internet of things (IoT) era, human–machine interfaces (HMIs) capable of providing humans with more intuitive interaction with the digitalized world have experienced a flourishing development in the past few years. Although the advanced sensing techniques based on complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) or microelectromechanical system (MEMS) solutions, e.g., camera, microphone, inertial measurement unit (IMU), etc., and flexible solutions, e.g., stretchable conductor, optical fiber, etc., have been widely utilized as sensing components for wearable/non-wearable HMIs development, the relatively high-power consumption of these sensors remains a concern, especially for wearable/portable scenarios. Recent progress on triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) self-powered sensors provides a new possibility for realizing low-power/self-sustainable HMIs by directly converting biomechanical energies into valuable sensory information. Leveraging the advantages of wide material choices and diversified structural design, TENGs have been successfully developed into various forms of HMIs, including glove, glasses, touchpad, exoskeleton, electronic skin, etc., for sundry applications, e.g., collaborative operation, personal healthcare, robot perception, smart home, etc. With the evolving artificial intelligence (AI) and haptic feedback technologies, more advanced HMIs could be realized towards intelligent and immersive human–machine interactions. Hence, in this review, we systematically introduce the current TENG HMIs in the aspects of different application scenarios, i.e., wearable, robot-related and smart home, and prospective future development enabled by the AI/haptic-feedback technology. Discussion on implementing self-sustainable/zero-power/passive HMIs in this 5G/IoT era and our perspectives are also provided.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-80
Author(s):  
Mervat Ibrahim ◽  
Jinxing Jiang ◽  
Zhen Wen ◽  
Xuhui Sun

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is the new technique that can convert low-frequency mechanical energy into effective electricity. As an energy collector, the pursuit of high output characteristics is understandable. Although high charge density has been achieved by working in high vacuum or charge pumping techniques, it remains challenging to obtain the high output performance directly in the atmosphere. Herein, surface-engineering of the triboelectric layer for enhancing output performance has been reviewed carefully. By constructing surface morphology or developing surface modification, high performance of TENGs is finally presented in the review.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huamei Wang ◽  
Liang Xu ◽  
Zhonglin Wang

The ocean is an enormous source of blue energy, whose exploitation is greatly beneficial for dealing with energy challenges for human beings. As a new approach for harvesting ocean blue energy, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) show superiorities in many aspects over traditional technologies. Here, recent advances of TENGs for harvesting blue energy are reviewed, mainly focusing on advanced designs of TENG units for enhancing the performance, through which the response of the TENG unit to slow water agitations and the output power of the device are largely improved. Networking strategy and power management are also briefly discussed. As a promising clean energy technology, blue energy harvesting based on TENGs is expected to make great contributions for achieving carbon neutrality and developing self-powered marine systems.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-31
Author(s):  
Swathi Ippili ◽  
Venkatraju Jella ◽  
Alphi Maria Thomas ◽  
Soon-Gil Yoon

Sensors have recently gathered significant attention owing to the rapid growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology for the real-time monitoring of surroundings and human activities. Particularly, recently discovered nanogenerator-based self-powered sensors are potential candidates to overcome the existing problems of the conventional sensors, including regular monitoring, lifetime of a power unit, and portability. Halide perovskites (HPs), with an excellent photoactive nature, dielectric, piezoelectric, ferroelectric, and pyroelectric properties, have been potential candidates for obtaining flexible and self-powered sensors including light, pressure, and temperature. Additionally, the photo-stimulated dielectric, piezoelectric, and triboelectric properties of HPs make them efficient entrants for developing bimodal and multimode sensors to sense multi-physical signals individually or simultaneously. Therefore, we provide an update on the recent progress in self-powered sensors based on pyroelectric, piezoelectric, and triboelectric effects of HP materials. First, the detailed working mechanism of HP-based piezoelectric, triboelectric, and pyroelectric nanogenerators—operated as self-powered sensors—is presented. Additionally, the effect of light on piezoelectric and triboelectric effects of HPs, which is indispensable in multimode sensor application, is also systematically discussed. Furthermore, the recent advances in nanogenerator-based self-powered bimodal sensors comprising HPs as light-active materials are summarized. Finally, the perspectives and continuing challenges of HP-based self-powered sensors are presented with some opportunities for future development in self-powered multimode sensors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Ya Yang

There are various types of nano-energies in our surroundings, such as mechanical energy produced by human motions, solar energy, thermal energy, and so on [...]


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