Advances of High-Performance Triboelectric Nanogenerators for Blue Energy Harvesting

Abstract

The ocean is an enormous source of blue energy, whose exploitation is greatly beneficial for dealing with energy challenges for human beings. As a new approach for harvesting ocean blue energy, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) show superiorities in many aspects over traditional technologies. Here, recent advances of TENGs for harvesting blue energy are reviewed, mainly focusing on advanced designs of TENG units for enhancing the performance, through which the response of the TENG unit to slow water agitations and the output power of the device are largely improved. Networking strategy and power management are also briefly discussed. As a promising clean energy technology, blue energy harvesting based on TENGs is expected to make great contributions for achieving carbon neutrality and developing self-powered marine systems.

Brownian motor inspired monodirectional continuous spinning triboelectric nanogenerators for extracting energy from irregular gentle water waves

“…In contrast, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) open up a new technological route for blue energy harvesting, with simple unit structure and resilient distributed architecture. [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] First invented in 2012, 16 the TENG is a new technology to convert mechanical energy into electricity, which is based on Maxwell's displacement current, 17 and works via triboelectrification and electrostatic induction. 9,13,18,19 By virtue of cost-effectiveness, easy fabrication, light weight and rich material choices, 17 the TENG and its networks are regarded as a promising approach for harvesting environmental mechanical energy, exhibiting fast development.…”

“…In contrast, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) open up a new technological route for blue energy harvesting, with simple unit structure and resilient distributed architecture. 8–15…”

Balancing charge dissipation and generation: mechanisms and strategies for achieving steady-state charge of contact electrification at interfaces of matter

“…Charge generation has been discussed extensively in numerous reviews. [22][23][24][25][26] Most circumstances and applications, however, involve the continuous operation of contact electrication for a prolonged period of time (i.e., instead of only the initial build-up of charge). When the charge accumulated on the surfaces approaches the maximum level attainable over a period of continuous contact electrication, the process is certainly not only determined by charge generation-charge dissipation is a critically important factor in determining the level of steadystate charge.…”

Soft Ball‐Based Triboelectric–Electromagnetic Hybrid Nanogenerators for Wave Energy Harvesting

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with other renewable energies, such as solar power and wind energy, ocean wave energy has the superior advantages of high power density, wide distribution, and low dependency on daytime, weather, and season. [3][4][5] It is estimated that ocean waves can generate at least 8000 terawatt-hours of electricity per year if such energy can be harvested effectively. [6,7] However, largescale and efficient wave energy harvesting is still challenging due to the energy harvesters' low efficiency, high cost, and low frequency of ocean waves (<5 Hz).Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), based on triboelectrification and electrostatic induction, has been extensively studied to harvest low-frequency mechanical energy, [8][9][10][11][12] including wave energy.

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