A novel hybridized blue energy harvester aiming at all-weather IoT applications

Abstract A hybridized blue energy harvester based on triboelectric-electromagnetic hybridized generator is developed to extract the abundant energy from water waves. Within the pendulum design of the blue energy harvester, an interdigital electrodes based triboelectric nanogenerator (I-TENG), a switches based triboelectric nanogenerator (S-TENG) and an electromagnetic generator (EMG) are complementarily integrated, to more effectively scavenge the water wave energy after packaged in a waterproof enclosed box. The outputs of both TENGs are enhanced by an optimized flexible circular ring supporting a rolling magnet due to soft contact and induced larger contact area. With a novel designed hybridized circuit, output power can reach to 95.4 mW at load of 100Ω. After the management circuit, a lithium battery of 200 mAh can be charged from 3.07 V to 3.35 V by this blue energy harvester with six hours of water wave impaction. Besides using the hybridized blue energy harvester to power a digital temperature sensor directly and continuously, an all-weather IoT platform is also established with the blue energy harvester, a solar cell panel and a Bluetooth sensor module. The ambient information of humidity and temperature can be detected and sent to user-end by the Bluetooth sensor module under various conditions with or without daylight and water waves.