Output Performance Enhancement Of Swingstructured Triboelectric Nanogenerators And Self-powered Electrochemical Applications

With the frequent occurrence of extreme weather,there is an urgent need to mitigate the deterioration of climate caused by global warming."Carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" have become the goals that all countries around the world are committed to achieving.One of the most effective ways is to develop and expand the use of clean energy,which is capable of generating electricity with zero carbon emissions.The blue energy contained in the oceans is an ideal source of new types of electricity,with wave energy around the global coastline estimated at over 2 TW.Electromagnetic generators(EMGs)are not ideal for collecting irregular and low-frequency waves energy randomly distributed in the ocean.Triboelectric nanogenerators(TENGs),a new type of blue energy harvesting technology,are more suitable for harvesting low frequency water wave energy based on its unique mechanism with higher energy conversion efficiency at low frequency.As an important branch of the chemical industry,electrochemistry is playing an increasingly important role in the major areas of sustainable development of human society.However,its high demand for electrical energy has also raised environmental concerns.Powering electrochemical reactions by TENGs to build self-powered electrochemical reactions at sea or on the coast is a potentially viable solution to the current constraints on the development of electrochemical industry.Our research work mainly includes the following aspects:(1)A swing-structured triboelectric nanogenerator(SS-TENG)based on freestanding triboelectric-layer mode was designed.The swing structure can store the energy from the instantaneous impact of water waves as potential energy before releasing it gradually through oscillation,which improves the energy conversion efficiency of TENG.The conversion efficiency can reach 28.2 %.The1.5 mm gap between the oscillating triboelectric layers and the electrodes greatly reduces the frictional resistance and material wear.By introducing triboelectric brushes,the triboelectric layer can be continuously replenished with charges,and the TENG performance does not decrease after the continuous operation of400000 cycles.(2)The design of the TENG was further optimized by replacing the polymer brushes with soft and dense rabbit furs with stronger electropositivity,which multiplied the output voltage and current.The ultra-lubricated ceramic bearings could achieve continuous outputs of the TENG for more than 5 min after a single excitation.The segmented structure was designed and optimized for the swing components,and the output current was increased by 91.9 %.(3)The output performance of the TENG array was investigated for the purpose of large-scale networking of blue energy.Based on this TENG array,electrochemical corrosion protection of metals and degradation of methyl orange were achieved.