Self-powered and self-sensing water meter using contact-separation triboelectric nanogenerator with harvesting local head loss

Abstract

The chemical batteries and sensing components used in water meters pose environmental challenges and conflict with carbon neutrality. This study proposes a novel self-powered and self-sensing water meter utilizing a contact-separation triboelectric nanogenerator (C-TENG) to address these concerns. The C-TENG water meter operates by harvesting the local head loss caused by water flow resistance in water meter, eliminating the need for an external power supply. Using 4 wt% MXene composite polyvinylidene fluoride nanofiber membrane as the negative friction layer and polysulfone nanofiber membrane as the positive friction layer, the C-TENG generated the highest open-circuit voltage (581.89 V) and short-circuit current (25.19 μA). The C-TENG with the capacitors of >100 μF ensured regular water meter operation. The water meter with C-TENG realized self-sensing as the water flow exhibited a linear relationship with the current of C-TENG. The use of C-TENG to recover 2 % of the local head loss allows the water meter to be self-powered regardless of the country's water meter standard. Take the water meter used in China as an example, the adoption of C-TENG instead of batteries to power 10,000 water meters for 5 years can reduce carbon emissions by at least 8.05 tons. These results provide fundamental support for the design and fabrication of self-powered and self-sensing C-TENG water meter.