U-Shaped Tube Based Liquid–Solid Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Harvesting Unutilized Compressed Air Energy

Due to a lack of technologies that harvest green and sustainable energy, unutilized compressed air energy during the operation of pneumatic systems is wasted. Liquid–solid triboelectric nano-generators (L-S TENGs) have been widely used as an advanced technology with broad development prospects due t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xuhang Cai, Zhijian Liu, Jingming Dong, Haoji Li, Jiamu Han, Jiaming Huang, Haotian Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-11-01
Series:Micromachines
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/14/11/2057
Description
Summary:Due to a lack of technologies that harvest green and sustainable energy, unutilized compressed air energy during the operation of pneumatic systems is wasted. Liquid–solid triboelectric nano-generators (L-S TENGs) have been widely used as an advanced technology with broad development prospects due to their advantages of a simple structure and long service life. Among them, liquid–solid triboelectric nanogenerators with tube structures have great potential for coupling multiple physical effects and integrating them into a single device. Herein, a U-shaped tube triboelectric nanogenerator composed of fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP) and copper foil (UFC-TENG) is proposed to directly harvest unutilized compressed air energy. The UFC-TENG can collect unutilized compressed air energy with a stable peak voltage and current of approximately 33 V and 0.25 μA, respectively. When the alternating frequency of the liquid is 0.9 Hz, the unutilized compressed air can drive the UFC-TENG unit with an inner diameter of 12 mm, achieving a maximum output power of 3.93 μW at an external load resistance of 90 MΩ. The UFC-TENG is a novel driving method for L-S TENGs and demonstrates the promising potential of TENGs in the harvesting of unutilized compressed air energy in pneumatic systems.
ISSN:2072-666X