Pressurized well inspired triboelectric nanogenerator for harvesting water wave energy toward marine environmental applications

Abstract

Among the world's most plentiful sources of renewable energy, water wave energy is extremely important to the sustainable development of the economy and society by developing devices and technologies to efficiently harvest its high-entropy energy. A novel approach of harvesting water wave energy has been made possible by the development of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), which has drawn the interest of numerous researchers. At present, the devices designed and applied to water wave energy harvesting based on the principle of TENG have problems such as complex structure, poor output stability, and insufficient practicability. Here, we propose a triboelectric nanogenerators inspired by ancient pressurized well device (IPW-TENG), which used the leverage principle. After a series of material selection, the IPW-TENG of single power generation unit exhibited superior electrical output and charging characteristics at a low mechanical driving frequency, and showed output stability. It is applied to cathodic protection, 304 stainless steel (304SS) has an open circuit potential drop of 200 mV, indicating that the anti-corrosion effect is remarkable. We integrated the array of power generation units and demonstrated the possibility of IPW-TENG to harvest water wave energy in marine environment. The device offers a workable solution for large-scale blue energy collecting and exhibits considerable potential in the application of corrosion protection and self-powered service systems.