Wave impact energy harvesting through water-dielectric triboelectrification with single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerators for battery-less systems

Abstract

This paper evaluates the effect of water-dielectric interfaces for wave impact energy harvesting at low frequencies (0.7 Hz–3 Hz) on the output performance of Water-Dielectric Single Electrode Mode Triboelectric Nanogenerators (WDSE-TENG). The triboelectric effect is generated between water (with a net positive charge) and a hydrophobic dielectric layer (with a net negative charge). Different WDSE-TENG configurations were tested using distinct hydrophobic materials. The water-fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) combination resulted in the best output performance. On the contrary, an output performance reduction by a factor of 3.53 was measured with seawater-dielectric interfaces. This can be compensated by increasing the contact area, with the best performance obtained using silicone rubber compound (Acetoxy, Elastomer) utilizing a WDSE-TENG with two-dielectric layer configuration. Employing seawater as a triboelectric material, the highest electrical output power and power density of 79.18 mW and 0.344 mW/cm2 was generated with a grid of WDSE-TENG, comprising five devices connected in parallel. The output voltage, current, transferred charge, stored energy and energy conversion efficiency (ECE) values of the grid of connected WDSE-TENG devices were compared against a single device. Such energy harvesters were able to power an ultrasonic range sensor and a one-way wireless transmitter for motion detection, distance measurement, and monitoring weather conditions. The stored energy and generated power were ~5.96 mJ and ~5.18 mW, respectively. Furthermore, the integration of the grid of WDSE-TENG with a power management control circuit (PMCC) is able to increase the output power and hence offer the potential to power up electronic devices with power consumption requirements between 1 mW and 100 mW. The results demonstrate that the grid of WDSE-TENG offers an innovative energy harvesting approach using water as a triboelectric material. The device can be used as an energy source for smart battery-less wireless sensing systems at water-structure interfaces in aquaculture (e.g. for fish detection or water level measurement) and weather condition monitoring.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Ulises Tronco Jurado: orcid.org/0000-0002-7992-5561

ORCID for Suan-Hui Pu: orcid.org/0000-0002-3335-8880

ORCID for Neil White: orcid.org/0000-0003-1532-6452

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