Scaling up blue energy harvesting: Transitioning from single generators to multiple generators

Abstract

Droplet-based triboelectric nanogenerator (D-TENG) using liquid -solid contact electrification has been widely studied for harvesting raindrop energy and ocean energy due to its unique ability to effectively reduce friction between solids and improve durability. In 2020, a new-generation D-TENG with a “transistor-like” structure was proposed, which first achieved ultra-high instantaneous power output(50 W/m ² ). Subsequently, D-TENG has been rapidly developed and is widely used in ocean wave energy power generation and liquid-solid triboelectric power generation. Currently, although we have excellent D-TENGs to harvest energy from a single water droplet, but if multiple D-TENGs are simply connected in parallel for a large area usage, the output power of the whole power generation module will drop significantly due to the mutual influence between different individual generation units, which severely limits their applications in practice. Therefore, finding a reasonable topology to relieve the inherent constraints of D-TENGs is of great significance for realizing the large-scale raindrop energy harvesting.