No abstract

A water-air triboelectric nanogenerator (WATENG) is presented for CO sensing application. During the operation of WATENG, two independent charge transfers can be used to characterize the effect of force and humidity, respectively. Thus, the structure of WATENG provides a capability to eliminate these two major interferences in a triboelectric self-powered sensor. With the aid of the polyethylenimine (PEI) coating, WATENG can be used for CO sensing in both static and dynamic conditions. In static condition with a stable CO concentration, the CO sensing is characterized with respect to different relative humidity, and the sensing range can be up to 6000 ppm. In dynamic CO sensing of a pulse gas spray, due to the fast recovery of PEI surface reaction, the sensing range of dynamic situation can be broadened to 30,000 ppm. The self-powered and portable feature of WATENG is preferable as a self-powered amenity sensor for the construction of internet of the things (IoT) sensor networks in the future.

Healthcare monitoring systems can provide important health state information by monitoring the biomechanical parameter or motion of body segments. Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) as self‐powered motion sensors have been developed rapidly to convert external mechanical change into electrical signal. However, research effort on using TENGs for multiaxis acceleration sensing is very limited. Moreover, TENG has not been demonstrated for rotation sensing to date. Herein, for the first time, a 3D symmetric triboelectric nanogenerator‐based gyroscope ball (T‐ball) with dual capability of energy harvesting and self‐powered sensing is proposed for motion monitoring including multiaxis acceleration and rotation. The T‐ball can harvest energy under versatile scenarios and function as self‐powered 3D accelerometer with sensitivity of 6.08, 5.87, and 3.62 V g−1 . Furthermore, the T‐ball can serve as a self‐powered gyroscope for rotation sensing with sensitivity of 3.5 mV so−1. It shows good performance in hand motion recognition and human activity state monitoring applications. The proposed T‐ball as a self‐powered gyroscope for advanced motion sensing can pave the way to a self‐powered, more accurate, and more complete motion monitoring system.