Single-electrode-based rotating triboelectric nanogenerator for harvesting energy from tires

Rotational energy is abundant and widely available in our living environment. Harvesting ambient rotational energy has attracted great attention. In this work, we report a single-electrode-based rotating triboelectric nanogenerator (SR-TENG) for converting rotational energy into electric energy. The unique advantage of introducing the single-electrode TENG is to overcome the difficulty in making the connection in harvesting rotational energy such as from a moving and rotating tire/wheel. The fabricated device consists of a rotary acrylic disc with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) blades and an Al electrode fixed on the base. The systematical experiments and theoretical simulations indicate that the asymmetric SR-TENGs exhibit much better output performances than those of the symmetric TENGs at the same rotation rates. The asymmetric SR-TENG with seven PTFE units at the rotation rate of 800 r/min can deliver a maximal output voltage of 55 V and a corresponding output power of 30 μW on a load of 100 MΩ, which can directly light up tens of red light-emitting diodes. The SR-TENG has been utilized to harvest mechanical energy from rotational motion of a bicycle wheel. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the SR-TENG can be applied to scavenge wind energy and as a self-powered wind speed sensor with a sensitivity of about 0.83 V/(m/s). This study further expands the operation principle of a single-electrode-based TENG and many potential applications of TENGs for scavenging ambient rotational energy and as a self-powered environment monitoring sensor.