Nanomaterials (Feb 2022)

An Array of Flag-Type Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Harvesting Wind Energy

  • Zhiqiang Zhao,
  • Bin Wei,
  • Yan Wang,
  • Xili Huang,
  • Bo Li,
  • Fang Lin,
  • Long Ma,
  • Qianxi Zhang,
  • Yongjiu Zou,
  • Fang Yang,
  • Hongchen Pang,
  • Jin Xu,
  • Xinxiang Pan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12040721
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 4
p. 721

Abstract

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Harvesting wind energy from the ambient environment is a feasible method for powering wireless sensors and wireless transmission equipment. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have proven to be a stable and promising technology for harvesting ambient wind energy. This study explores a new method for the performance enhancement and practical application of TENGs. An array of flag-type triboelectric nanogenerators (F-TENGs) for harvesting wind energy is proposed. An F-TENG consists of one piece of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membrane, which has two carbon-coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) membranes on either side with their edges sealed. The PTFE was pre-ground to increase the initial charge on the surface and to enhance the effective contact area by improving the surface roughness, thus achieving a significant improvement in the output performance. The vertical and horizontal arrays of F-TENGs significantly improved the power output performance. The optimal power output performance was achieved when the vertical parallel distance was approximately 4D/15 (see the main text for the meaning of D), and the horizontal parallel distance was approximately 2D. We found that the peak output voltage and current of a single flag-type TENG of constant size were increased by 255% and 344%, respectively, reaching values of 64 V and 8 μA, respectively.

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