Effective energy storage from a triboelectric nanogenerator

Yunlong Zi, Jie Wang, Sihong Wang, Shengming Li, Zhen Wen, Hengyu Guo and Zhong Lin Wang ()
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Yunlong Zi: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Jie Wang: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Sihong Wang: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Shengming Li: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Zhen Wen: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Hengyu Guo: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
Zhong Lin Wang: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract To sustainably power electronics by harvesting mechanical energy using nanogenerators, energy storage is essential to supply a regulated and stable electric output, which is traditionally realized by a direct connection between the two components through a rectifier. However, this may lead to low energy-storage efficiency. Here, we rationally design a charging cycle to maximize energy-storage efficiency by modulating the charge flow in the system, which is demonstrated on a triboelectric nanogenerator by adding a motion-triggered switch. Both theoretical and experimental comparisons show that the designed charging cycle can enhance the charging rate, improve the maximum energy-storage efficiency by up to 50% and promote the saturation voltage by at least a factor of two. This represents a progress to effectively store the energy harvested by nanogenerators with the aim to utilize ambient mechanical energy to drive portable/wearable/implantable electronics.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10987

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