Hybrid All‐in‐One Power Source Based on High‐Performance Spherical Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Harvesting Environmental Energy

• Published in: Advanced energy materials 2020-09, Vol.10 (36), p.n/a
• Main Authors: Xu, Lingyi, Xu, Liang, Luo, Jianjun, Yan, Ying, Jia, Bei‐Er, Yang, Xiaodan, Gao, Yihua, Wang, Zhong Lin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Direct current; Electronics; Energy harvesting; environmental power sources; Fire prevention; Forest fires; Internet of Things; Moisture control; Nanogenerators; Photovoltaic cells; Raindrops; Soil moisture; Solar cells; triboelectric nanogenerators; Weather
• ISSN: 1614-6832; 1614-6840
• DOI: 10.1002/aenm.202001669

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoTs), widely distributed electronics in the environment require effective in situ energy harvesting technologies, which is made challenging by the unstable supply and severe conditions in some environments. In this work, a hybrid all‐in‐one power source (AoPS) is demonstrated for widely adaptive environmental energy harvesting. With a novel structure, the AoPS hybridizes high‐performance spherical triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) with solar cells, enabling the harvesting of most typical environmental energies from wind, rain drops, and sun light, for complementary supply. The spherical TENG units with a packaged structure can work robustly to collect energy from fluid. Nearly continuous direct current and a high average power of 5.63 mW can be obtained by four TENG units, which is further complemented by solar cells. Typical application scenarios are also demonstrated, achieving self‐powered soil moisture control, forest fire prevention and pipeline monitoring. The work realizes the concept of an environmental power source that can be deployed in the environment with high adaptability to make use of all kinds of surrounding energies for powering electronics in all‐weather conditions, providing a reliable foundation for the era of the IoTs. An environmental power source concept is proposed for the first time, which can be deployed with high adaptability and reliability to make use of all kinds of surrounding energies for sustaining electronics in all‐weather conditions. This concept is successfully realized as a hybrid all‐in‐one power source based on high‐performance spherical triboelectric nanogenerators.