Self-Powered Seawater Electrolysis Based on a Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Hydrogen Production

Abstract

Water splitting for yielding high-purity hydrogen represents the ultimate choice to reduce carbon dioxide emission owing to the superior energy density and zero-pollution emission after combustion. However, the high electricity consumption and requirement of large quantities of pure water impede its large-scale application. Here, a triboelectric nanogenerator (W-TENG) converting offshore wind energy into electricity is proposed for commercial electric energy saving and cost reduction. By introducing PTFE/POM dielectric pairs with matched HOMO/LUMO band gap energy, a high charge density is achieved to promote the output of W-TENG. With the impedance matching design of transformers with the internal resistance of W-TENG, the output current is further enhanced from 1.42 mA to 54.5 mA with a conversion efficiency of more than 92.0%. Furthermore, benefiting from the high electrocatalytic activity (overpotential = 166 mV and Tafel slope = 181.2 mV dec–1) of a carbon paper supported NiCoP-MOF catalyst, natural seawater can be adopted as a resource for in situ hydrogen production without acid or alkaline additives. Therefore, the self-powered seawater electrolysis system achieves a H2 production rate as high as 1273.9 μL min–1 m–2 with a conversion efficiency of 78.9%, demonstrating a more practical strategy for conversion of wind energy into renewable hydrogen energy.

Recent Advances in Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Marine Exploitation

“…The related research works are classified into the three major application directions, which include the ocean energy harvesting, self‐powered ocean monitoring, and self‐powered marine electrochemical technologies, by the relative application area ( Figure 1 ). [ 47–67 ] In order to better summarize the research content and the latest progress of the three major research directions, we have also carried out a more detailed classification introduction to the three major research directions. Importantly, the viewing outlooks and challenges of TENGs major application directions in the marine exploitation are proposed, respectively.…”

“…Reproduced with permission. [ 47–67 ] Reproduced with permission. [ 47,50,54,61,63,65 ] Copyright 2021, 2019, 2021, 2017, 2021, 2022, American Chemical Society.…”

“…Reproduced with permission. [47,50,54,61,63,65] Copyright 2021, 2019, 2021, 2017, 2021, 2022, American Chemical Society. Reproduced with permission.…”

Energy Harvesting: Synthetic Use of Recovered Energy in Electrochemical Late‐Stage Functionalization

“…Selfpowered electrochemical and photoelectrochemical systems are used for waste stream treatment, [2,3] sensor systems, [4,5] corrosion protection [6] and water splitting. [7] To our knowledge, applications in the synthesis of organic molecules have not been described so far. [8] We report here the application of a self-powered rotary energy harvesting (EH) device (Figure 1) to power an electrolytic cell for the synthesis of complex organic molecules.…”

A Noncontact Constant-Voltage Triboelectric Nanogenerator via Charge Excitation

“…Harvesting energy from renewable natural resources has been proven to be a promising strategy . Based on the coupling effect of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have ben demonstrated to be an alternative solution for converting environment mechanical energy into electricity. − With the merits of low weight, diverse material selection, easy structure fabrication, and superiority in low-frequency energy harvesting, TENGs have exhibited application prospects in the fields of micro/nano energy, − self-powered systems, − high-voltage sources, , and blue energy. , …”