Scavenging Mechanical Energy from Human Motions Using Novel-Biomaterial-Based Triboelectric Nanogenerator

摘要

In today’s world, people are surrounded by smart wireless devices which requiresustainable and eco-friendly power source. Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) isemerging as an imperative source to produce clean, cost-effective, and easilyfabricated battery-less devices. The emphasis is on using biomaterials to play avital role for the fabrication of such self- powered system. Herein, an approach isdiscussed to fabricate a novel TENG from the waste biomaterials (garlic tunic,onion tunic, and almond peel) which successfully harvests the electrical energyfrom daily human motions (walking and running). Egg shell membrane–polytetrafluoroethylene(ESM–PTFE) TENG generates 56.6 V/0.53 μA and is closelyfollowed by garlic tunic–PTFE TENG with 44.6 V/0.36 μA, onion tunic–PTFETENG with 41.4 V/0.32 μA, and almond peel–PTFE TENG with 40.2 V/0.29 μA,respectively. Moreover, ESM-based TENG performance is examined using allother biomaterial combinations. These TENGs produce sufficient energy that canpower an array of tens of green light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Finally, the powerfrom human activities is harvested to control small portable electronic devices.