The operation cost of an intelligent high-speed train system is greatly increased by the enormous energy demand of large-scale signal and sensor networks. However, the wind energy generated by high-speed trains is completely neglected. Herein, a wind-energy-harvesting device, which is based on an elastic rotation triboelectric nanogenerator (ER-TENG), is fabricated to harvest the wind energy generated by high-speed moving trains and power the relevant signal and sensing devices. Due to the significant decrease in friction force resulting from reasonable material selection and elastic structure design, the energy-harvesting efficiency of an ER-TENG is doubled and the durability is increased by 4 times compared to the same characteristics of a conventional rotation sliding triboelectric nanogenerator (RS-TENG). Our findings not only provide an in situ energy-harvesting pattern for an intelligent high-speed rail system by recovering the otherwise wasted wind energy generated by high-speed trains but also offer a potential strategy for large-scale wind energy harvesting by TENGs.

Vibration sensor is very necessary for monitoring the structural health of constructions. However, it is still a major challenge to meet simultaneously real-time monitoring, continuous assessment, and early incident warning in a simple device without a complicated power and analysis system. Here, we report a selfpowered vibration sensor system to achieve real-time and continuous detection of the vibration characteristics from a dual-mode triboelectric nanogenerator (AC/DC-TENG), which can produce either alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC) within different operation zones. Within the vibration-safe region, the AC/DC-TENG with AC output not only can continuously assess the vibration characteristics but also can power the signal transmission. More importantly, once the vibration amplitude crosses the danger threshold, the AC converts immediately to DC, meanwhile triggering the alarm system directly to accurately predict the danger of construction. Our self-powered vibration sensor system can serve as a facile tool for accurately monitoring the structural health of constructions.

An ocean wave contains various marine information, but it is generally difficult to obtain the high-precision quantification to meet the needs of ocean development and utilization. Here, we report a self-powered and high-performance triboelectric ocean-wave spectrum sensor (TOSS) fabricated using a tubular triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) and hollow ball buoy, which not only can adapt to the measurement of ocean surface water waves in any direction but also can eliminate the influence of seawater on the performance of the sensor. Based on the high-sensitivity advantage of TENG, an ultrahigh sensitivity of 2530 mV mm–1 (which is 100 times higher than that of previous work) and a minimal monitoring error of 0.1% are achieved in monitoring wave height and wave period, respectively. Importantly, six basic ocean-wave parameters (wave height, wave period, wave frequency, wave velocity, wavelength, and wave steepness), wave velocity spectrum, and mechanical energy spectrum have been derived by the electrical signals of TOSS. Our finding not only can provide ocean-wave parameters but also can offer significant and accurate data support for cloud computing of ocean big data.