A triboelectric nanogenerator based on bionic design for harvesting energy from low-frequency vibration

• Published in: International journal of non-linear mechanics 2023-12, Vol.157, p.104540, Article 104540
• Main Authors: Zhang, Zidong, Qi, Zhifeng, Sun, Xiuting, Xu, Jian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bionic; Energy harvesting; Low-frequency resonance; Nonlinearity; Triboelectric nanogenerator
• ISSN: 0020-7462; 1878-5638
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2023.104540

With the development of Internet of Things and the increase of wearable devices, the infinite self-power supply of small devices such as wireless sensors and portable devices has been widely concerned. Considering that the vibration energy in the environment is not affected by day and night, season and climate, and widely distributed, its mechanical energy can be collected. If the low-frequency and small amplitude vibration energy in the environment can be collected and converted into electric energy, it will provide a reliable solution for the self-power supply of these small devices. In this study, we designed a miniaturized energy harvester inspired by bionics. The resonance mechanism improved by nonlinearity is used to realize the amplification of vibration in low width frequency band. And triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is used to convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. Through the modeling and dynamic analysis of the system, we find a low resonance frequency band as the working range of the system. Subsequently, a prototype of the bird legs-type TENG was fabricated and tested to verify the design concept. We verify the ability of the prototype to amplify low-frequency vibration and optimized the structural parameters. Moreover, we demonstrate the excellent electrical output performance of the prototype in low-frequency and small external excitation environment and give two application prospects of wearable prototype and vehicle-mounted prototype. •Proposing a novel fully foldable structure with adjustable nonlinearity bio-inspired by bird leg multi-link mechanism.•Realizing amplification of the vibration with low-frequency in a wide range.•Verifying correlation between vibration amplitude and electrical output performance.•Fabricating a wearable prototype that generates electricity while swinging arm.