CommunicationMultilayer wavy-structured robust triboelectric nanogenerator for harvesting water wave energy
Introduction
With a rapid consumption of the world׳s reserved fossil fuels, seeking new energy sources is vital for the sustainable development of human kind. Simultaneously, the climate change and global warming caused by the overexploitation of fossil fuels have been the most important environmental concerns [1], [2]. By examining the world resources, we detected that energy available in ocean is almost unexplored [3], [4]; the water wave energy, for example, has not been utilized owing to bulky instruments, low conversion efficiency and engineering difficulty and complexity based on the electromagnetic generators [5], [6], [7]. It is quite necessary and urgent to search a new and efficient approach for harvesting the kinetic energy from water wave.
Since 2012, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) based on the coupling of triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction has been invented and used to convert ambient mechanical energy into electricity [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14]. With the virtue of simple processing, light weight, environment friendly and low cost, the TENG is proven to be an effective technology for harvesting multifarious mechanical energies, such as the motion of human walking [15], [16], airflow [17], tire rotating [18] and heart beating [19], which are available but wasted in our daily life. The TENG can not only supply sustainable power sources for small electronics, but also could be equivalently important as the electromagnetic generator for general power application at large-scale [20], [21]. Up to now, TENG has been effectively used for harvesting energy from various water flow motions such as water drop energy [22] and water wave energy [23] at a very low frequency, which is particularly different from the electromagnetic generator that usually works at a high frequency to generate a high output power [24]. Compared to the traditional methods, the TENG technology can be a novel, easy and effective way in large-scale blue energy harvesting.
In this paper, we presented a dodecahedron enclosed structured device using 12 sets of multilayer wavy-structured triboelectric nanogenerators (WS-TENGs) for harvesting water wave energy. The WS-TENG is composed of a wavy-structured Cu–Kapton–Cu film and two fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) thin films sputtered with metal electrodes as a sandwich structure [25], [26]. Agitated by the water wave motion, a hard ball inside the dodecahedron device was used to continually strike the multilayer WS-TENGs on the internal surfaces and the water wave energy can be converted into electricity. By comparing the output characteristics of the WS-TENG with the different wavy radius and Kapton film thicknesses, an optimum experimental parameter was selected to fabricate the multilayer WS-TENGs for water wave energy harvesting. Considering tens of thousands of the WS-TENGs can be connected into a net structure [23], the average output power is expected to be 0.64 MW from 1 km2 surface area in a depth of 5 m. This work clearly presents the TENG can harvest the large-scale water wave energy and has the potential to be the dominant generator for blue energy.
Section snippets
The process of the electrons injection on FEP film
Two pieces of commercial FEP films with the thickness of 0.2 mm were cleaned by alcohol, acetone and deionized water in sequence, and then deposited with a layer of copper on one side as the electrode as a Cu–FEP film. The basic process of the electrons injection on the FEP film was shown in Figure 1, the needle was connected to the cathode and the Cu electrode was connected to the anode and the ground. Subsequently, the needle point was directly faced to the FEP surface with a vertical distance
Result and discussion
Details of the device fabrication are described in the experimental section. To improve the output performances of the TENG, electrons were first injected to the top surface of the FEP film as an electret, which was sputtered with Cu electrode on the backside [28], [29], [30]. Figure 1 shows the basic process of the electrons injection on the FEP film. The needle was connected to the cathode and the Cu electrode was connected to the anode and ground, then the needle point was directly faced to
Conclusion
In summary, we have demonstrated a regular dodecahedron device integrated with 12 sets of multilayer wavy-structured robust WS-TENGs for harvesting water wave energy. Each WS-TENG is composed of a wave-structured Cu–Kapton–Cu film and two FEP thin films sputtered with metal electrodes as a sandwich structure. A hard ball is enclosed inside the polyhedron device and the collision of the ball with the robust WS-TENGs in responding to the kinetic motion of water wave can convert mechanical energy
Acknowledgments
The project is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant nos. 51475099, 51432005), the “thousands talents” program for the pioneer researcher and his innovation team, China, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS.
Limin Zhang received her undergraduate degree from Hebei University of Technology in 2012, and now she is a doctoral candidate. Her research interests are piezoelectric nanogenerator and triboelectric nanogenerator, especially focus on triboelectricity based active micro/nano-sensors, flexible electronics, tribotronic circuit and their applications in sensor networks and human machine interaction.
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Limin Zhang received her undergraduate degree from Hebei University of Technology in 2012, and now she is a doctoral candidate. Her research interests are piezoelectric nanogenerator and triboelectric nanogenerator, especially focus on triboelectricity based active micro/nano-sensors, flexible electronics, tribotronic circuit and their applications in sensor networks and human machine interaction.
Dr. Changbao Han received his Ph.D degree from Zhengzhou University in 2012. He firstly fabricated the GaN/Si nano-heterostructure array LEDs and realized its near-infrared light emission with high monochromaticity by band-gap engineering. His research interests include the synthesis of semiconductor nano-materials, photoelectric device and applications of triboelectric nanogenerator.
Dr. Tao Jiang received his Ph.D. degree from East China University of Science and Technology in 2014. Now he is a postdoctoral fellow in Prof. Zhong Lin (Z.L.) Wang׳s group at the Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His research interests are the theoretical studies of triboelectric nanogenerators and fundamental applications.
Tao Zhou received her master degree and bachelor degree from Harbin Institute of Technology in 2013 and 2011, respectively. Now she is a doctoral candidate. Her research interests are piezoelectric nanogenerator and triboelectric nanogenerator, especially focus on nanogenerator as flexible and wearable power supplies, active sensors and their applications in wearable devices and wireless sensing systems.
Xiaohui Li received her undergraduate degree from Zhengzhou University in 2013, and her major is Materials Science and Engineering, and now she is a first-year graduate student in Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Her research interests are focused on triboelectric nanogenerator, the luminescence of semiconductors, and their applications in sensor networks.
Prof. Chi Zhang received his Ph.D. degree from Tsinghua Univisity in 2009. After graduation, he worked in Tsinghua Univisity as a postdoc research fellow and NSK Ltd., Japan as a visiting scholar. He now is the principal investigator of Tribotronics Group in Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Member of Youth Innovation Promotion Association, CAS, Senior Member of Chinese Society of Micro-Nanotechnology, and Fellow of the NANOSMAT Society. Prof. Chi Zhang׳s research interests are triboelectric nanogenerator, tribotronics, self-powered MEMS/NEMS, and applications in sensor networks, human-computer interaction and new energy technology. He has been awarded by NSK Sino-Japan Friendship Excellent Paper Award of Mechanical Engineering and granted by National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, and CAS. He has published over 40 papers and attained 13 patents.
Prof. Zhong Lin Wang received his Ph.D from Arizona State University in physics. He now is the Hightower Chair in Materials Science and Engineering, Regents׳ Professor, Engineering Distinguished Professor and Director, Center for Nanostructure Characterization, at Georgia Tech. Dr. Wang has made original and innovative contributions to the synthesis, discovery, characterization and understanding of fundamental physical properties of oxide nanobelts and nanowires, as well as applications of nanowires in energy sciences, electronics, optoelectronics and biological science. His discovery and breakthroughs in developing nanogenerators established the principle and technological road map for harvesting mechanical energy from environment and biological systems for powering a personal electronics. His research on self-powered nanosystems has inspired the worldwide effort in academia and industry for studying energy for micro-nano-systems, which is now a distinct disciplinary in energy research and future sensor networks. He coined and pioneered the field of piezotronics and piezo-phototronics by introducing piezoelectric potential gated charge transport process in fabricating new electronic and optoelectronic devices. Details can be found at: www.nanoscience.gatech.edu.