Coaxial rotatory-freestanding triboelectric nanogenerator for effective energy scavenging from wind

Abstract Ambient mechanical energy is one of the most abundant energy sources around us. It is a promising approach to solve the problem of energy and environment by harvesting such energy due to its cost-effectiveness, environmental friendliness and sustainability. Recently, triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been proposed as an effective and promising technology for harvesting ambient mechanical energy. Herein, a coaxial rotatory-freestanding TENG (CRF-TENG) was developed and its theoretical model was constructed. An approximate V – Q – α relationship was derived and the explicit analytical solutions of the transferred charge, output current, voltage and average power are obtained from numerically calculation. Finally, to verify the theoretical results, the real output performances of as-fabricated CRF-TENG were measured. The experimental results are consistent with the theoretical ones. The newly developed TENG mode greatly expands the applicability of TENGs for harvesting energy from ambient rotating mechanical motion.