Low-Cost, Environmentally Friendly, and High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerator Based on a Common Waste Material

Abstract

With the great progress in human activities and production technologies, the waste inevitably produced causes not only environmental pollution but also resource waste; meanwhile, the mobile and portable electronic devices urgently need a distributed and sustainable energy source to ensure their stable operation. Here, the waste pollutants (milk cartons) generated from daily life, commonly associated with environmental concerns, are instead identified as an available resource for preparing an emerging energy harvester (triboelectric nanogenerator, TENG), which can convert ubiquitous mechanical energy into electric power. Consequently, based on the waste material, the initial charge density of the TENG is as low as 0.035 mC m–2, which can be tremendously improved to 1.00 mC m–2 through combining a charge excitation circuit, achieving efficient energy harvesting. In addition, compared to the common dielectric film, the waste material can reduce the cost and simplify the process of the preparation of TENG. This work provides not only an innovative approach to simultaneously realize environmental protection and energy harvesting but also more material choice for the preparation of a low-cost and high-performance TENG.

Spherical Micro/Nano Hierarchical Structures for Energy and Water Harvesting Devices

“…[ 22 ] To realize these objectives, researchers have developed various methods, such as applying micro‐ or nanopatterning to enhance the performance, [ 12 ] using soft materials to improve durability, [ 23 ] and developing simple TENG structures to reduce fabrication costs. [ 24 ] However, because the three parameters have a trade‐off relationship in terms of applicable fabrication methods, the researchers could independently achieve only one or two of these three objectives. Therefore, it still remains challenging to develop a TENG that satisfies all the above objectives.…”

Wearable Triboelectric Sensors Enabled Gait Analysis and Waist Motion Capture for IoT‐Based Smart Healthcare Applications

“…[52,53] In addition to sensing performance, the flexible wearable sensor is also in high demand of properties including self-sustainability, ease of fabrication, and low cost for customizable applications. [54][55][56][57][58] On that account, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) featured with self-generated signals and lower power consumption is attracting increasing attention widely, especially for the scenarios of large-scale IoT applications. [59][60][61][62][63] More importantly, due to the unique operation mechanism, triboelectric sensors have versatile options in terms of fabrication techniques and materials.…”

Self-powered seesaw structured spherical buoys based on a hybrid triboelectric–electromagnetic nanogenerator for sea surface wireless positioning

“…Meanwhile, a suitable power management circuit must be considered to combat the impedance mismatch issue in a hybrid nanogenerator. 37–40…”