Breeze-Wind-Energy-Powered Autonomous Wireless Anemometer Based on Rolling Contact-Electrification

A triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has great advantages in harvesting low-frequency mechanical energy, which is very suitable for energy harvesters and active sensors for breeze wind. Here, we report a breeze-wind-driven autonomous wireless anemometer (W-WA) based on a planetary rolling triboelectric nanogenerator (PR-TENG) for simultaneous wind energy harvesting and wind speed sensing. Benefitting from the planetary rolling friction, the PR-TENG can be activated at a wind speed of less than 2 m/s. At a wind speed of 5 m/s, the W-WA can be continuously powered and autonomously transmit wind speed data in the range of 10 m every 2 min. By integrating the TENG-based micro/nanoenergy harvester and active sensor, this work has realized a complete self-powered intelligent wireless sensing system, which has exhibited broad prospects in distributed micro/nanoenergy, unattended environmental monitoring, and the Internet of things.