Wind-Driven Radial-Engine-Shaped Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Self-Powered Absorption and Degradation of NO_X

As one of the major air pollutants, NO_X is rather challenging to remove. The main treatment method is catalytic reduction with plenty of reducing agents, which lacks any effective control in an open air environment such as urban spaces. It is necessary to seek a self-powered electrochemical process for environmental treatment. The triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), a developing technology with various advantages, is widely used in energy and environmental monitoring and cleaning. In this work, a radial-engine-shaped TENG system with five stacked TENGs is designed to synchronously absorb NO_X and degrade its main enrichment forms of nitrate and nitrite in aqueous solution. In addition, the system possesses inherent phase differences and outputs continuous direct current after rectification. Moreover, we demonstrated that, driven by artificial wind at a speed of 6 m/s, the NO_X generated by a chemical method was effectively degraded by the radial-engine-shaped TENG system.