Elastic Self-Recovering Hybrid Nanogenerator for Water Wave Energy Harvesting and Marine Environmental Monitoring

Abstract

To achieve large-scale development of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for water wave energy harvesting and powering the colossal sensors widely distributed in the ocean, facile and scalable TENGs with high output are urgently required. Here, an elastic self-recovering hybrid nanogenerator (ES-HNG) is proposed for water wave energy harvesting and marine environmental monitoring. The elastic skeletal support of the ES-HNG is manufactured using three-dimensional (3D) printing technology, which is more conducive to the large-scale integration of the ES-HNG. Moreover, the combination of a TENG and an electromagnetic generator (EMG) optimizes the utilization of device space, leading to enhanced energy harvesting efficiency. Experimental results demonstrate that the TENG achieves a peak power output of 42.68 mW, and the EMG reaches a peak power output of 4.40 mW. Furthermore, various marine environment monitoring sensors, such as a self-powered wireless meteorological monitoring system, a wireless alarm system, and a water quality monitoring pen, have been successfully powered by the sophisticated ES-HNG. This work introduces an ES-HNG for water wave energy harvesting, which demonstrates potential in marine environment monitoring and offers a new solution for the sustainable development of the marine internet of things.