Energy plays a very important role in human life. At present, energy consumption depends mainly on traditional fossil energy. This is a limited, non-renewable energy source. With the continuous exploitation and depletion of fossil energy, it is urgent to find Some new forms of energy. Ocean wave energy has the advantages of abundant reserves and less influence by environmental factors. It is one of the potential energy sources for large-scale application. However, in recent decades, the exploration of wave energy collection in countries around the world is mostly based on Traditional electromagnetic generators, and electromagnetic generators are limited by their own working principles, it is difficult to effectively collect such low-frequency, random energy.
Foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, director of the Beijing Institute of Nano-Energy and Systems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Wang Zhonglin of the Georgia Institute of Technology, first proposed a friction nanogenerator based on frictional electrification and electrostatic induction in 2012, which uses the mechanism of Maxwell's displacement current. The mechanical energy in the surrounding environment is converted into electrical energy. At the same time, the spherical structure friction nano-generator has been used to collect water wave energy because of its light weight, low motion resistance in water waves and easy arraying. However, in the previous research and development work This spherical friction nano-generator also has shortcomings such as small output current, which limits its practical application.
Recently, under the guidance of Wang Zhonglin, the research team composed of master students Xiao Tianxiao, Liang Shu and associate researcher Jiang Tao and others have prepared a spherical friction nanogenerator that can efficiently collect water wave energy through coupling springs and multilayer structures. Multiple basic power generation units are integrated into the spherical shell space to form a multi-layer structure. The generator has a great improvement in output current and power. The current output of the single ball is increased by more than two orders of magnitude compared with the previous spherical generator. The output power reached 7.96 mW. Subsequently, a spherical generator array was prepared, and a self-driven system for water temperature measurement was constructed by array and energy storage. The important application prospects of nano-generators in blue energy collection were presented. Related results by Spherical Triboelectric Nanogenerators Based on Spring-Assisted Multilayered Structure for Efficient Water Wave Energy Harvesting was published in the recent Adv. Funct. Mater.
(a) Schematic diagram of spherical friction nanogenerators based on springs and multilayer structures; (b)-(c) Output current and power of spherical generator arrays at different water wave frequencies; (d) Construction of self-driven systems for water temperature measurement .
