Recent advances in metal-organic framework-based self-powered sensors: A promising energy harvesting technology

Advanced Materials

Triboelectric nanogenerators offer an environmentally friendly approach to harvesting energy from mechanical excitations. This capability has made them widely sought‐after as an efficient, renewable, and sustainable energy source, with the potential to decrease reliance on traditional fossil fuels. However, developing triboelectric nanogenerators with specific output remains a challenge mainly due to the uncertainties associated with their complex designs for real‐life applications. Artificial intelligence‐enabled inverse design is a powerful tool to realize performance‐oriented triboelectric nanogenerators. This is an emerging scientific direction that can address the concerns about the design and optimization of triboelectric nanogenerators leading to a next generation nanogenerator systems. This perspective paper aims at reviewing the principal analysis of triboelectricity, summarizing the current challenges of …

Advanced Materials Technologies

Although natural evaporation absorbs substantial thermal energy from the ambient environment, efficiently utilizing this high‐entropy energy remains challenging. Here, the first water evaporation‐induced triboelectric nanogenerator is proposed. It only uses tap water to harvest low‐grade heat energy from the surroundings to convert it into electricity. The natural evaporation of the liquid can generate unintermittent electricity with an open‐circuit voltage of 382 V, a peak power of 0.42 mW, and three orders of magnitude enhancement up to 59.7 mJ mL−1 after consuming the same amount of tap water compared with the droplet‐based electricity generators. After which, the excellent power output lights 2 W LED and drives wearable electronic devices. This device also inhibits carbon steel materials' corrosion in solutions through the evaporation effect of the salt water on the spot. The present study provides novel …

Nano Energy

Tactile perception systems as the medium between the ambient environment and robotics lie in the heart of modern artificial intelligence. By providing different electronic readouts under various circumstances, they can give easily captured information for post-processing. However, for applications of most reported tactile perception systems, external location assistances are still needed. Here, as inspired by the platypus’ sixth sense, we developed a new kind of tactile perception system based on triboelectric sensors with the additional function from quantum rods. This terminal can be used as a single-electrode mode triboelectric nanogenerator for both location detection and vertical force sensing with high sensitivity and fast response. Moreover, by adding CdSe/CdS quantum rods into an imprinted polydimethylsiloxane film, different lateral stretching levels can be perceived by a modified luminescence. Supported …

Energy & Environmental Science

Controlling the motion of charge carriers in semiconductor materials is a fundamental strategy for achieving many functional devices, which is typically achieved by applying an external voltage source. Herein, using the electrostatic potential generated by a triboelectric material taken as a sliding “gate”, a functional current is generated across a semiconductor channel when the gate is moving in parallel to the dielectric surface. Systematic studies verify that the motion of the electrified “gate” induces the regional and dynamical doping of the semiconductor channel, thereby driving the carrier transport without applying an external voltage. This sliding-gated generator achieves mechanoelectric energy conversion based on the coupled triboelectrification effect and electrostatic field effect and is therefore termed as a field effect nanogenerator (FENG). It can output electrical currents with a waveform that follows well with …

Advanced Materials Technologies

Wearable and implantable triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) convert mechanical energy to electricity in the daily movements of the human body. Self‐generated dynamic electric field or displacement current of TENGs can operate from micrometers to centimeters, which offers a key technology for TENG‐based therapy systems for precision medicine on both tissues and cells. TENGs have low‐current and high‐voltage properties, which reduce damage to normal tissues, and kill rapidly dividing cancer cells. In this work, the dynamic electric field from TENG directly inhibits the cellular proliferation behavior of cancer cells. The work paves a new way for the self‐generated electric field of TENG for cancer therapy.

Journal of Power Sources

High-frequency supercapacitors (HF–SCs) are promising electric energy storage devices and alternating current line filters. However, severe self-discharge of HF–SCs causes significant energy loss and limits their applications. Current self-discharge suppression methods for supercapacitors typically lead to decreased rate performance and hence cannot be applied to HF–SCs directly. In this work, barium titanate (BTO) nanoparticles are employed as an electrolyte additive for HF–SCs to reduce self-discharge. By adding BTO nanoparticles into the electrolyte, both leakage current and decay of open circuit voltage of the devices are reduced without sacrificing the specific capacitance and high-frequency response. At a charging voltage of 2 V, the leakage current is reduced by 49 % (3.91 vs. 1.98 μA), while the time for the voltage to drop from 2.0 to 1.0 V is extended by 4.5 times (2300 vs. 10240 sec). When the HF …

Small

Shelter forests (or shelter‐belts), while crucial for climate regulation, lack monitoring systems, e.g., Internet of Things (IoT) devices, but their abundant wind energy can potentially power these devices using the trees as mounting points. To harness wind energy, an omnidirectional fluid‐induced vibration triboelectric nanogenerator (OFIV‐TENG) has been developed. The device is installed on shelter forest trees to harvest wind energy from all directions, employing a fluid‐induced vibration (FIV) mechanism (fluid‐responding structure) that can capture and use wind energy, ranging from low wind speeds (vortex vibration) to high wind speeds (galloping). The rolling‐bead triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) can efficiently harvest energy while minimizing wear and tear. Additionally, the usage of double electrodes results in an effective surface charge density of 21.4 µC m−2, which is the highest among all reported …

Advanced Materials

Recently, perovskite photodetectors (PDs) have been risen to prominence due to substantial research interest. Beyond merely tweaking the composition of materials, a cutting‐edge advancement lies in leveraging the innate piezoelectric polarization properties of perovskites themselves. Here, the investigation shows utilizing Ti3C2Tx, a typical MXene, as an intermediate layer for significantly boosting the piezoelectric property of MAPbI3 thin films. This improvement is primarily attributed to the enhanced polarization of the methylammonium (MA+) groups within MAPbI3, induced by the OH groups present in Ti3C2Tx. A flexible PD based on the MAPbI3/MXene heterostructure was then fabricated. The new device is sensitive to a wide range of wavelengths, displays greatly enhanced performances owing to the piezo‐phototronic coupling. Moreover, the device is endowed with a greatly reduced response time, down …

Energy & Environmental Science

Establishing maintenance-free wireless sensor networks for online monitoring of power transmission lines is crucial for realizing smart grids, exhibiting necessitating energy harvesters with compact volume, excellent robustness, and efficient, well-regulated output. This study introduces a hybrid magnetic energy harvester (HMEH), seamlessly integrating a magneto-mechanical energy conversion module, a non-contact rotational triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) module, and an electro-magnetic generator (EMG) module for magnetic energy harvesting and self-powered sensing in power transmission lines. The HMEH converts magnetic energy into synchronized mechanical rotation using the magnetic phase difference principle and smoothly transforms it into a regulated electrical energy output. With a compact size of 5 cm × 5 cm × 3 cm and a light weight of 56 g, the HMEH showcases unprecedented volume and …

Small

Triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) is a promising solution to harvest the low‐frequency, low‐actuation‐force, and high‐entropy droplet energy. Conventional attempts mainly focus on maximizing electrostatic energy harvest on the liquid‐solid surface, but enormous kinetic energy of droplet hitting the substrate is directly dissipated, limiting the output performance. Here, a dual‐mode TENG (DM‐TENG) is proposed to efficiently harvest both electrostatic energy at liquid‐solid surface from a droplet TENG (D‐TENG) and elastic potential energy of the vibrated cantilever from a contact‐separation TENG (CS‐TENG). Triggered by small droplets, the flexible cantilever beam, rather than conventional stiff ones, can easily vibrate multiple times with large amplitude, enabling frequency multiplication of CS‐TENG and producing amplified output charges. Combining with the top electrode design to sufficiently utilize charges at …

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

The global annual vegetable and fruit waste accounts for more than one-fifth of food waste, mainly due to deterioration. In addition, agricultural product spoilage can produce foodborne illnesses and threaten public health. Eco-friendly preservation technologies for extending the shelf life of agricultural products are of great significance to socio-economic development. Here, we report a dual-functional TENG (DF-TENG) that can simultaneously prolong the storage period of vegetables and realize wireless storage condition monitoring by harvesting the rotational energy. Under the illumination of the self-powered high-voltage electric field, the deterioration of vegetables can be effectively slowed down. It can not only decrease the respiration rate and weight loss of pakchoi but also increase the chlorophyll levels (∼33.1%) and superoxide dismutase activity (∼11.1%) after preservation for 4 days. Meanwhile, by …

Nature Communications

Harvesting biomechanical energy from cardiac motion is an attractive power source for implantable bioelectronic devices. Here, we report a battery-free, transcatheter, self-powered intracardiac pacemaker based on the coupled effect of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction for the treatment of arrhythmia in large animal models. We show that the capsule-shaped device (1.75 g, 1.52 cc) can be integrated with a delivery catheter for implanting in the right ventricle of a swine through the intravenous route, which effectively converts cardiac motion energy to electricity and maintains endocardial pacing function during the three-week follow-up period. We measure in vivo open circuit voltage and short circuit current of the self-powered intracardiac pacemaker of about 6.0 V and 0.2 μA, respectively. This approach exhibits up-to-date progress in self-powered medical devices and it may overcome the inherent …

Advanced Materials

Although dielectric elastomer actuators (DEAs) are promising artificial muscles for use as visual prostheses in patients with oculomotor nerve palsy (ONP), high driving voltage coupled with vulnerable compliant electrodes limits their safe long‐term service. Herein, a self‐healable polydimethylsiloxane compliant electrode based on reversible imine bonds and hydrogen bonds is prepared and coated on an acrylic ester film to develop a self‐healable DEA (SDEA), followed by actuation with a high‐output triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) to construct a self‐powered DEA (TENG‐SDEA). Under 135.9 kV mm−1, the SDEA exhibits an elevated actuated strain of 50.6%, comparable to the actuation under DC power. Moreover, the mechanically damaged TENG‐SDEA displays a self‐healing efficiency of over 90% for 10 cycles. The TENG ensures the safe using of TENG‐SDEAs and an extraocular‐muscle‐like actuator …

Chemical Engineering Journal

Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) and lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) play an important role in the field of clean energy as energy conversion and storage devices respectively. It is vital to fabricate efficient transport between TENGs and LIBs for promoting the development in combined energy systems. This work constructs an efficient energy transport system between the contact-energy contact-separation TENG (CCS-TENG) and the LIB by introducing power management based on a short-circuit contact in-situ. Such synergy system satisfies the needs of improving the efficient connection between TENGs and LIBs, durability and miniaturization of energy unit. The short-circuit contact in-situ guarantees the maximum energy output of CSS-TENG in every contact-separation cycle and the energy density is as high as 131.1 mJ m−2 cycle−1, although the electrode of CCS-TENG is only 10 cm2. Moreover, the TENG cycle …

Advanced Functional Materials

The utilization of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is on the rise across various industries. In such a scenario, the issue of flight safety for these UAVs becomes increasingly paramount. Currently, UAVs exhibit shortcomings in flight attitude perception compared to more mature manned aircraft, especially concerning the position sensing of flight actuation, which poses significant safety risks. Mature position monitoring solutions for flight actuation used in manned aircraft cannot be directly integrated into systems of UAV due to compatibility issues. This necessitates the development of new position sensing technologies to address this challenge. Triboelectric nanogenerators, with their advantages of miniaturization, self‐powering capabilities, and the ability to generate voltage‐level electrical signals, are chosen to form a part of the position detection system for sensors in UAVs. In this study, a self‐powered …

As one of the few self-powered instruments and devices, triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) have been developed for more than 10 years since its invention in 2012. With wide material selections and diverse design structures, and without having to use an external power supply, TENG has been applied in many key technologies. By the end of 2022, more than 16,000 researchers from 83 countries and regions around the world have authored scientific papers in TENG. In this review, we start from the theoretical principles and working mechanisms of TENG, and discuss its 5 major fields of application, namely, as self-powered sensors, high-voltage energy devices, blue energy devices, micro/nano-energy devices, and solid–liquid interface probes. Next, we review the breakthrough progress made using TENG as commercial products in the following fields: medical health, intelligent security, and marine energy …

Nano Energy

While triboelectric nanogenerated knitted fabrics are regarded as a state-of-the-art and reliable energy source for wearable electronics, there are two bottlenecks in their widespread applications: few mass-manufacturing strategies and low power output. Here, by mature weft-knitted technologies, a 3D single-faced jacquard pile fabric TENG (SJPF-TENG) with the merits of high surface pile density, excellent comfort and breathability, good thermal insulation property, and superior durability, is mass-produced. Based on the high-density pile structure (about 16128 piles per cm2), the surface area of pile fabrics is 42.2 times that of the plain structure, which endows the SJPF-TENG with higher electrical outputs and good detection precision. With a peak power density of 1.4 W m−2 (dozens of times that of conventional textile-based TENGs), the SJPF-TENG is capable of lighting up 1392 light-emitting diodes, powering …

IEEE Sensors Journal

Accurate rainfall monitoring carries significant importance across meteorological and hydrological domains. However, existing sensors face numerous challenges, including issues related to accuracy, stability, and limited measurement range, particularly during heavy rain events. Here, an innovative droplet-based triboelectric nanogenerator (D-TENG) rain gauge is proposed to overcome the above challenges. It incorporates a saddle-shaped rainfall bearing plate designed to channel rainwater for regular dripping onto the D-TENG, thereby generating electrical signals for droplet enumeration. The feasibility of the D-TENG rain gauge is substantiated through the analyses of the stability of the electrical signal (short-circuit current) and droplet weight. Experimental results illustrate the effective measurement range of the D-TENG rain gauge as 0-243.1 mm/h, with the relative error in calculated rainfall intensity within ±4 …

Nano Energy

Multi-direction, irregularity, low-grade, the dynamic characteristics of low-grade airflow energy are prominent that making it difficult to collect. Here, we propose a vibration-coupled triboelectric nanogenerator (VC-TENG) induced by vortex to achieve from weak to ultra-strong vibration, thus effectively converting low-grade airflow energy into vibrational mechanical energy, and then electric energy. The transferred charge and short-circuit current increases is 47 and 26.9 times due to designed vortex structure, and the resonant response time is 2 s at a speed of 4.1 m/s. A VC-TENG unit delivers a peak power of 4.5 mW under a load resistance of 500 MΩ. A grouping of applied demonstrations of self-powered system validates the practicality and durability of VC-TENG. This work offers a practical strategy for harvesting low-grade airflow energy, and is a promising distributed power technologies for self-powered monitoring …