Droplet-based nanogenerators for energy harvesting and self-powered sensing

The energy crisis is a continuing topic for all human beings, threatening the development of human society. Accordingly, harvesting energy from the surrounding environment, such as wind, water flow and solar power, has become a promising direction for the research community. Water contains tremendous energy in a variety of forms, such as rivers, ocean waves, tides, and raindrops. Among them, raindrop energy is the most abundant. Raindrop energy not only can complement other forms of energy, such as solar energy, but also have potential applications in wearable and universal energy collectors. Over the past few years, droplet-based electricity nanogenerators (DENG) have attracted significant attention due to their advantages of small size and high power. To date, a variety of fundamental materials and ingenious structural designs have been proposed to achieve efficient droplet-based energy harvesting. The research and application of DENG in various fields have received widespread attention. In this review, we focus on the fundamental mechanism and recent progress of droplet-based nanogenerators in the following three aspects: droplet properties, energy harvesting and self-powered sensing. Finally, some challenges and further outlook for droplet-based nanogenerators are discussed to boost the future development of this promising field.