Soft-Soft Contact TENG Using Nonlinear Coupling Galloping Phenomenon for Harvesting Wind Energy

Small-scale wind energy harvesting, which can replace batteries to power small electronic devices and realize self-powered systems, has been extensively studied. To improve the working wind-speed range and output power of small-scale wind energy generation systems, we propose a synergetic hybrid piezoelectric and triboelectric mechanism for galloping wind energy harvesting. In this mechanism, a piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) works in the vibration area and starts working at low wind speeds, while triboelectric nanogenerators work at the vibration boundaries and cooperate with the PEH at high wind speeds. The triboelectric nanogenerator boundaries can (1) constrain the maximum deformation of the beam at high wind speeds to avoid damage to the PEH, (2) increase the vibration frequency to enhance the electromechanical conversion efficiency, and (3) allow the PEH to have a low equivalent stiffness to work effectively at low wind speeds. A dynamic model is presented to characterize the synergetic hybrid piezoelectric–triboelectric wind energy harvester (SHPTWEH) and this is verified by experiments. The results show that the triboelectric nanogenerator boundaries greatly expand the effective working wind-speed range, and the total average power output by the prototype SHPTWEH was 0.24 mW at a wind speed of 14 m/s, which was 2.3 times that of the PEH alone.

Natural cotton-based triboelectric nanogenerator as a self-powered system for efficient use of water and wind energy

Wind energy harvesting based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) is a promising solution for powering distributed Internet of Things (IoT) nodes, yet its practical efficiency and stability are often hindered by the fluctuating and unpredictable nature of wind. Here, we propose a self-regulating TENG (SR-TENG) that leverages the synergistic effects of centrifugal, elastic, and frictional forces to automatically switch between non-contact and contact modes based on wind speed. This configuration achieves an ultra-low start-up wind speed of 0.86 m/s, ensures sustainable high-performance output across a broad wind speed range, and exhibits excellent durability with no observable performance degradation during 23,000 s of continuous operation at 375 rpm. Systematic structural optimization enables the SR-TENG to reach a peak open-circuit voltage of 140 V, a short-circuit current of 12.5 μA, and a transferred charge of 300 nC at 375 rpm. When integrated with a customized power management circuit, the system delivers a 30.39-fold increase in effective output power at a 1 MΩ load and a 4-fold faster charging rate for a 10 μF capacitor. For practical validation, the harvested ambient wind energy successfully powers a wireless temperature-humidity sensor for real-time cloud data transmission. These results highlight that the SR-TENG holds great potential for advanced wind energy harvesting and self-powered sensing applications in distributed IoT systems.

A high-performance triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid wind energy harvester based on rotational tapered rollers aiming at outdoor IoT applications

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.

Wind conditions are crucial in agricultural production, and wind vectors play a significant role in agricultural planting plans. However, traditional anemometers rely on external power sources such as lithium batteries, while wind energy in farmlands is usually neglected. This paper proposes an intelligent wind vector monitoring system based on a dual-module triboelectric nanogenerator (DM-TENG), which consists of a fan-blade type soft-contact triboelectric nanogenerator (FBTSC-TENG) and a disc-shaped triboelectric nanogenerator (DS-TENG). FBTSC-TENG collects wind energy in the environment to power the temperature and humidity sensors, while determining wind speed through the frequency of voltage pulses. DS-TENG can monitor wind direction, identifying 8 wind directions through output pulse signals and deep learning algorithms. Therefore, the DM-TENG proposed in this study is expected to play a significant role in the field of smart agriculture in the future.

The triboelectric nanogenerator shows a broad application potential in wind energy collection and wind speed sensing. However, it is difficult to realize wind energy collection and real-time wind speed monitoring in one simple device without external power support. Here, a high-performance dual-mode triboelectric nanogenerator is proposed to simultaneously collect wind energy efficiently and monitor wind speed in real time, which is composed by an alternating current triboelectric nanogenerator (AC-TENG) and a direct-current triboelectric nanogenerator (DC-TENG). Based on the material optimization, the charge density of the AC-TENG improves by a factor of 1 compared with previous works. Moreover, benefiting from the elastic structure and material optimization to realize a low friction force, the AC-TENG shows an excellent durability and obtains a retention of 87% electric output after 1 200 000 operation cycles. Meanwhile, thanks to the high charge density and low friction force, the energy-harvesting efficiency of the AC-TENG is doubled. In addition, the DC-TENG not only displays an excellent real-time sensing performance but also can provide gale warning. Our finding exhibits a strategy for efficiently collecting wind energy and achieving fully self-powered and real-time wind speed monitoring.

Humidity-resistant triboelectric nanogenerator and its applications in wind energy harvesting and self-powered cathodic protection

Hybrid harvesting of wind and wave energy based on triboelectric-piezoelectric nanogenerators

Anemometers play an important role in environmental monitoring in remote and unique locations, such as forests, islands, and mines. Self-powered wind speed sensors offer a solution for long-term reliable monitoring in unmanned environments. However, current self-powered wind speed sensors suffer from limited integration, limited start-up range, and insufficient output power. Therefore, an all-in-one self-powered wind speed sensor (ASWS-sensor) with a wide start-up range and high output power is proposed. The ASWS-sensor, based on triboelectric nanogenerator and electromagnetic generation technologies, features a unique dual-cup structure that integrates wind speed sensing and wind energy harvesting. This design enables wind speed detection across a broad range from 1.5 to 15 m/s and achieves a high output power of 1.18 W. To meet the long-term, reliable wind speed monitoring needs in coal mine tunnels, a real-time wind speed monitoring and alarm system is developed combining the ASWS-sensor and a master computer. Notably, in this system, the use of the FIR filtering algorithm effectively suppresses significant noise encountered during the collection of single-electrode triboelectric signals with a microcontroller, thereby simplifying the wind speed calculation process. The results show that when the wind speed exceeds 7 m/s, the system can collect, process, wirelessly transmit, analyze, and display wind speed-related data without the need for an external power supply. This demonstrates the excellent application potential of the ASWS-sensor in unmanned monitoring in remote and unique scenarios.

With the widespread application of sensor networks, traditional power supplies face limitations, especially in remote marine areas where battery replacement is challenging and lifespan is limited. As a clean and renewable energy source, wind energy offers a promising solution to this issue. But conventional turbines are bulky, costly, and inefficient at low wind speeds for micro sensors. This study proposes a hybrid triboelectric-electromagnetic wind energy harvester (H-TEWH) that integrates an electromagnetic generator (EMG) with a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) to enable synergistic energy harvesting across varying wind speeds. At 11 m/s, the device achieves a theoretical peak output of 12.08 mW. An efficient power management circuit, combining a gas-discharge-tube-based buck circuit and an LTC3588 module to ensure stable and continuous power output. Self-powered sensor experiments validated the practicality and reliability of the system in complex marine environments, providing a feasible technical solution for self-powered devices suitable for maritime monitoring applications.

As an important green energy in our life, natural wind energy is widely used in power generation. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) can convert wind energy in the environment into electrical signal. In this study, two independent TENGs in parallel (FHS-TENG) and the power management circuit composed of passive self-switching circuit and LC filter circuit constitute a self-supplying system, which is committed to harvesting wind energy in the environment and outputting stable voltage and improving energy storage performance. The self-switching circuit mainly includes rectifier module, energy storage module, the self-switching module, and filter module. And the on/off state of the passive self-switching is mainly controlled by two transistors, which implements the effect of switch. The results demonstrate that the energy stored by the power management circuit is more than 100 times higher than that of the universal circuit at 100 μF capacitor, and the calculator is in stable working order in simulated wind conditions. This work provides a new strategy for the passive electronic switch of TENG and the improvement of circuit energy storage performance, which is meaningful for the further application and industrialization of TENG.

Currently, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) are drawing significant attention owing to their potential in harvesting wave and wind energy from environment as well as their capability for driving electrochemical water splitting for hydrogen fuel production. This review aims to summarize the recent progress of ocean wave and wind energy harvesting TENGs and TENG-driven electrochemical water splitting processes for hydrogen evolution reaction. For better understanding, this review begins from the fundamentals of TENG and electrochemical water splitting. And then the working principle of TENGs and mechanism of electrochemical (EC) water splitting for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) are introduced. Subsequently the progress of output performance enhancement in ocean wave and wind energy harvesting TENGs are systematically discussed including structure design, triboelectric material selection and power management all of which are important for output performance enhancement and the integration of TENGs with electrochemical water splitting cell. Although this review focus on the promotion strategies of TENG-driven electrochemical water splitting processes for HER, challenges for water splitting are also highlighted. While envision that this review provides a deep insight and direction to the design of TENG-driven electrochemical system for promoting the hydrogen fuel production in an active, economical manner.

As one of the most promising renewable energies, wind energy is abundant in the natural environment. However, it is still challenging to effectively collect wind energy because of its variable wind speed and unpredictable direction. Here, a triboelectric nanogenerator, which is inspired by ancient Chinese wind bells, has been developed to collect energy from variable-speed and multi-directional wind. The wind-bell-inspired triboelectric nanogenerator (W-TENG) has the capability to generate electricity even at a very low wind speed of 0.5 m s-1. Furthermore, it is able to harvest wind energy effectively from all directions (0-360 degrees). The parameter-optimized W-TENG achieves a maximum output voltage of 9.3V and a maximum current of 0.63µA. Electronic devices including a digital watch and 40 light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are successfully powered by the designed W-TENG, demonstrating its applicability. In this study, it is believed that a novel and effective strategy is provided to harvest energy from variable-speed and multi-directional wind.

Smart network node based on hybrid nanogenerator for self-powered multifunctional sensing