volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

In recent years, harvesting abundant, clean and renewable wave energy from the ocean has become one of the most promising ways to obtain electricity. However, the multi-directional nature of waves and the low frequency of the movement pose a current challenge. We designed and fabricated an all-directional triboelectric nanogenerator (AD-TENG) with a biomimetic snail golden spiral. It consists of an electric energy collector in the vertical direction and another in the horizontal direction, and mainly operates through the contact separation method. The AD-TENG converted mechanical energy into electrical energy with the swinging of the pendulum and folding movements. The spiral structure of AD-TENG can harvest energy in all horizontal directions, and the wiring is simple, requiring only two positive and negative wires. In a water wave environment, the AD-TENG charged a capacitor of 100 μF to a voltage of 3 V in 2 min, lighting up 150 LED bulbs. The experiment measured the peak-to-peak voltage (Vpp) from 15 different angles and calculated the error ``e'' as 4.6%. The multi-degree-of-freedom energy harvesting and adaptability to various water wave motions of the AD-TENG offer great potential for the development of self-powered marine sensors.

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Dr. Yuxuan Tong

Dr. Xin Zhou

Mr. Xiaobing Niu

Dr. Xinhua Ye