A Shared-Electrode and Nested-Tube Structure Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Motion Energy Harvesting.

Zhumei Tian,Qiong Zhang,Yanan Geng,Xi Chen,Guicheng Shao

doi:10.3390/mi10100656

Zhumei Tian, Qiong Zhang + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/mi10100656

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Abstract

Triboelectric nanogenerators with the function of harvesting human motion energy have attracted wide attention. Here, we demonstrate a shared-electrode and nested-tube structure triboelectric nanogenerator (SNTN) for harvesting human motion energy. The design of the SNTN employs flexible silicone rubber as the negative friction material and Ni-coated polyester conductive textile as the positive friction material and the electrode material. The entire structure consists of an inner triboelectric unit and an outer triboelectric unit. The inner triboelectric unit is formed by a hollow inner tube and a hollow middle tube, while the hollow middle tube and a hollow outer tube constitute the outer triboelectric unit. The hollow middle tube is used as the shared tube, and the electrode in the middle tube is used as the shared electrode of the two triboelectric units. Our research demonstrates that the output performance of the SNTN was improved significantly compared with a single triboelectric unit due to the cooperation of the two triboelectric units. When the SNTN is pressed by 300 N external force, output open-circuit voltage of 180 V and output short-circuit current of 8.5 μA can be obtained. The output electrical energy can light up 31 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) connected serially (displaying “XZTC”) and can drive a digital clock after rectifying storage, which shows application prospects in the field of illuminating devices and portable electronics.

Highlights

As a novel energy harvesting method, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), whose theoretical sources are derived from Maxwell displacement current [1], have been proposed to convert wave energy [2], wind energy [3], rain power [4,5], vibration energy [6,7,8], and human motion energy [9,10,11,12,13,14] into electricity as a result of the coupling of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction [3,4,15,16,17,18,19,20]
Triboelectric nanogenerators for human motion energy harvesting have a fabric structure, tube structure, or fiber structure; among these, the triboelectric nanogenerators with a fabric structure are mainly used for human motion energy harvesting [11,30,31,32], while the fiber-based and tube-based triboelectric nanogenerators can be adapted for human motion energy harvesting and human motion information monitoring due to their flexibility and direction adaptability [12,13,33]
The inner triboelectric unit is formed by nesting the hollow inner tube in the hollow middle tube, and the outer triboelectric unit is formed by nesting the hollow middle tube in the hollow outer tube; the two triboelectric units share the hollow middle tube and the electrode layer in the middle tube as a shared electrode

Summary

Introduction

As a novel energy harvesting method, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), whose theoretical sources are derived from Maxwell displacement current [1], have been proposed to convert wave energy [2], wind energy [3], rain power [4,5], vibration energy [6,7,8], and human motion energy [9,10,11,12,13,14] into electricity as a result of the coupling of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction [3,4,15,16,17,18,19,20]. With the widespread adoption of flexible wearable electronic devices, many researchers are working on flexible wearable triboelectric nanogenerators for human motion energy harvesting which are expected to be flexible, stretchable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable. We designed a shared-electrode and nested-tube structure triboelectric nanogenerator (SNTN) for harvesting human motion energy. The whole structure consists of a flexible hollow inner tube, a hollow middle tube, and a hollow outer tube. The prepared SNTN has the characteristics of flexibility, sustainability, biological compatibility, etc., and can convert energy from different pressing directions perpendicular to the axial direction into electrical energy

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