Effective energy storage from a triboelectric nanogenerator.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 26964693.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms10987 and PMC identifier 4793045.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
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.
Medical subject headings
- Electric Power Supplies
- Electrodes, Implanted
- Electronics
- Nanotechnology