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Pervasive and continuous energy solutions are highly desired in the era of the Internet of Things for powering wide-range distributed devices/sensors. Wind energy has been widely regarded as an ideal energy source for distributed devices/sensors due to the advantages of being sustainable and renewable. Herein, we propose a high-performance flag-type triboelectric nanogenerator (HF-TENG) to efficiently harvest widely distributed and highly available wind energy. The HF-TENG is composed of one piece of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane and two carbon-coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes with their edges sealed up. Two ingenious internal-structure designs significantly improve the output performance. One is to place the supporting sponge strips between the PTFE and the carbon electrodes, and the other is to divide the PTFE into multiple pieces to obtain a multi-degree of freedom. Both methods can improve the degree of contact and separation between the two triboelectric materials while working. When the pair number of supporting sponge strips is two and the degree of freedom is five, the maximum voltage and current of HF-TENG can reach 78 V and 7.5 μA, respectively, which are both four times that of the untreated flag-type TENG. Additionally, the HF-TENG was demonstrated to power the LEDs, capacitors, and temperature sensors. The reported HF-TENG significantly promotes the utilization of the ambient wind energy and sheds some light on providing a pervasive and sustainable energy solution to the distributed devices/sensors in the era of the Internet of Things.

Harvesting acoustic energy in the environment and converting it into electricity can provide essential ideas for self-powering the widely distributed sensor devices in the age of the Internet of Things. In this study, we propose a low-cost, easily fabricated and high-performance coniform Helmholtz resonator-based Triboelectric Nanogenerator (CHR-TENG) with the purpose of acoustic energy harvesting. Output performances of the CHR-TENG with varied geometrical sizes were systematically investigated under different acoustic energy conditions. Remarkably, the CHR-TENG could achieve a 58.2% higher power density per unit of sound pressure of acoustic energy harvesting compared with the ever-reported best result. In addition, the reported CHR-TENG was demonstrated by charging a 1000 μF capacitor up to 3 V in 165 s, powering a sensor for continuous temperature and humidity monitoring and lighting up as many as five 0.5 W commercial LED bulbs for acoustic energy harvesting. With a collection features of high output performance, lightweight, wide frequency response band and environmental friendliness, the cleverly designed CHR-TENG represents a practicable acoustic energy harvesting approach for powering sensor devices in the age of the Internet of Things.

With the development of autonomous/smart technologies and the Internet of Things (IoT), tremendous wireless sensor nodes (WSNs) are of great importance to realize intelligent mechanical engineering, which is significant in the industrial and social fields. However, current power supply methods, cable and battery for instance, face challenges such as layout difficulties, high cost, short life, and environmental pollution. Meanwhile, vibration is ubiquitous in machinery, vehicles, structures, etc., but has been regarded as an unwanted by‐product and wasted in most cases. Therefore, it is crucial to harvest mechanical vibration energy to achieve in situ power supply for these WSNs. As a recent energy conversion technology, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is particularly good at harvesting such broadband, weak, and irregular mechanical energy, which provides a feasible scheme for the power supply of WSNs. In this review, recent achievements of mechanical vibration energy harvesting (VEH) related to mechanical engineering based on TENG are systematically reviewed from the perspective of contact–separation (C‐S) and freestanding modes. Finally, existing challenges and forthcoming development orientation of the VEH based on TENG are discussed in depth, which will be conducive to the future development of intelligent mechanical engineering in the era of IoT.

Acoustic energy, especially broadband low-frequency sound energy is part of the environmental mechanical energy acquisition cannot be ignored. Herein, a multi-tube parallel Helmholtz resonator-based triboelectric nanogenerator (MH-TENG) is investigated to reap sound energy in low-frequency noise environments. The designed MH-TENG consists of a modified Helmholtz resonator and a thin-film TENG transducer. The core materials of the TENG transducer are aluminum, FEP film, and carbon. To further clarify the influence of the modified Helmholtz resonator on the conversion performance of MH-TENG, the acoustic characteristics of the improved resonators are systematically studied. A series of experiments show that the multi-tube parallel Helmholtz resonator structure has a better sound wave collection effect. Meanwhile, the flexible film TENG can reduce the optimal output frequency of the device. The power generation performance and the bandwidth of the MH-TENG are significantly improved by adopting a multi-tube Helmholtz resonator. Within the frequency bandwidth range of 230 Hz, MH-TENG can effectively improve the efficiency of acoustic energy harvesting. 110 LEDs and an electronic thermometer can be powered by the sound-driven MH-TENG. In addition, the MH-TENG has a good capacitor charging performance, which is conducive to its application in ambient sound energy harvesting.

Measurement while drilling (MWD) system of offshore drill pipe is of great significance for safety production. It is greatly demanded to develop a sustainable power supply as well as self‐powered sensors for the MWD system. In this work, a drill pipe‐embedded annular type triboelectric nanogenerator (AT‐TENG) is proposed and systematically investigated, and it consists of an annular silicone rubber and a pair of electrodes. The design of the AT‐TENG allows the silicone rubber to contact and separate with the electrodes easily in a narrow space under arbitrary direction vibration to realize power generation. The experimental results show that the peak power density of AT‐TENG with single‐pair electrode reaches 63.7 W m−3 under the vibration frequency of 4 Hz and amplitude of 100 mm. The minimum peak voltage is >65 V within 360° lateral vibration range. The peak voltage achieves 351.62 V under the third‐order natural frequency. In addition, the amplitude and frequency obtained from the voltage signals exhibit linearly with those of actual vibration. The mean error between the frequency detected by AT‐TENG and actual frequency is <0.03%. Thus, the AT‐TENG can serve as an energy harvester and self‐powered vibration sensor.

This study aims to introduce and discuss the recent research, development and application of wave energy marine buoys. The topic becomes increasingly appealing after the observation that wave energy technologies have been evolving in the recent decades, yet have not reached convergence. The power supply is usually the bottleneck for marine distributed systems such as buoys. Wave energy technologies are especially useful in this sense, as they can capture and convert the promising “native” renewable energy in the ocean (i.e., wave energy) into electricity. The paper enumerates the recent developments in wave energy capture (e.g., oscillating bodies) and power take-off (e.g., nanogenerators). The study also introduces the typical marine buoys and discusses the applicability of wave energy technologies on them. It is concluded that the wave energy technologies could be implemented as a critical addition to the comprehensive power solution of marine distributed systems. Wave energy buoys are likely to differentiate into “wave energy converter buoys” and “wave-energy-powered buoys”, which is indicated by the ratio of the generated power to the load power.

Exhaust gas flow takes a vital position in the assessment of ship exhaust emissions, and it is essential to develop a self-powered and robust exhaust gas flow sensor in such a harsh working environment. In this work, a bearing type triboelectric nanogenerator (B-TENG) for exhaust gas flow sensing is proposed. The rolling of the steel balls on PTFE film leads to an alternative current generated, which realizes self-powered gas flow sensing. The influence of ball materials and numbers is systematically studied, and the B-TENG with six steel balls is confirmed according to the test result. After design optimization, it is successfully applied to monitor the gas flow with the linear correlation coefficient higher than 0.998 and high output voltage from 25 to 106 V within the gas flow of 2.5–14 m/s. Further, the output voltage keeps stable at 70 V under particulate matter concentration of 50–120 mg/m3. And the output performance of the B-TENG after heating at 180 °C for 10 min is also surveyed. Moreover, the mean error of the gas flow velocity by the B-TENG and a commercial gas flow sensor is about 0.73%. The test result shows its robustness and promising perspective in exhaust gas flow sensing. Therefore, the present B-TENG has a great potential to apply for self-powered and robust exhaust gas flow monitoring towards Green Ship.